President Biden canceled a trip to a vaccine maker on Wednesday after a hard-hitting report said the company’s lobby left the federal stockpile of medical supplies unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden was scheduled to visit a Baltimore facility run by Emergent BioSolutions, but canceled the trip after Sunday’s report.
“We just feel [the White House] it was a more appropriate place for the meeting, ”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday at her daily press conference.
“The government will conduct a comprehensive review and audit of the national stock,” she said.
The CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck are expected to meet with Biden to discuss the launch of the third US-approved COVID-19 vaccine. Emergent is working with these companies under a federal Operation Warp Speed contract. It is not clear whether an emerging representative will attend the White House meeting after the change of location.
Emergent’s long-standing sales of an anthrax vaccine, supported by a $ 3 million annual lobbying budget since 2010, have consumed much of the pre-pandemic purchases from Strategic National Stockpile, the New York Times reported.
Last year, while nurses were using garbage bags due to a lack of protective equipment, the company sold the government $ 626 million in anthrax vaccines, which will spoil on the shelves if not used.
The anthrax vaccine only slightly improves patient outcomes by supplementing cheap antibiotics, according to the report. But the company’s anthrax vaccine absorbed 40% of national stock funds from 2010 to 2018, although there has been no anthrax attack since a 2001 letter campaign that killed five.
Emergent reportedly makes a 75% profit from the anthrax vaccine, the license it bought in 1998 from Michigan before raising the price. This reportedly hampered efforts by a rival company to manufacture a second vaccine.