The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has exercised contract options valued at $18.9 million over three years for Emergent BioSolutions to continue supplying Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous [human] (VIGIV®) into the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
The options—exercised on an extension of contracts stretching back to 2002—provide for work required to maintain FDA licensure and to collect plasma for future manufacturing of VIGIV, a treatment indicated for complications due to smallpox vaccination.
The options raise the total value of Contract No. 200-2012-52242 to $36.6 million. The contract was originally awarded to Cangene—whose $222 million acquisition by Emergent was completed in February. In September 2013, three months before the acquisition was announced, Cangene said it received up to $77 million in extensions from CDC over four years.
Under the latest modification, the scope of work called for under the contract was to maintain the ability to manufacture licensed VIGIV, with annual options to conduct additional services to support licensure maintenance activities for the product, as well as to allow for additional manufacturing and plasma collections.
“Emergent’s ongoing integration of the Cangene operations has ensured continuity in the fulfillment of our procurement and development contracts with the U.S. government,” Adam Havey, evp and president of Emergent’s biodefense division, said in a statement.
VIGIV was first delivered into the SNS in 2002 and was subsequently licensed in the U.S. by the FDA in 2005, and in Canada by Health Canada in 2007.
Among the complications from smallpox vaccination that VIGIV is indicated to treat are including eczema vaccinatum, progressive vaccinia, severe generalized vaccinia, vaccinia infections in individuals who have skin conditions, and aberrant infections induced by vaccinia virus, except in cases of isolated keratitis.
