Posted on 11/12/2011 9:51:41 AM PST by austinaero
Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.
Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
LOL
Here’s an example from the article - “When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company’s financial demands, senior officials replaced the government’s lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.”
WE need to go to the public hearing in December - will try ot find info. More outrage from the article:
“In a June 2010 email, Gary Disbrow, a virologist in HHS’ biomedical unit, shared with colleagues his assessment of where the FDA stood on the smallpox drugs being developed by Siga and Chimerix, the North Carolina company: “My interpretation of their current position is that there is NO foreseeable path to licensure.”
The problem was the inherent limits of animal testing in determining whether the drugs would be safe and effective in fighting smallpox in humans. Researchers are prohibited from infecting humans with the virus.
In May of this year, Robert G. Kosko Jr., a manager in the FDA’s antiviral-products division, wrote that there was “no clear regulatory path” for approving antiviral drugs for smallpox again because of the uncertainty surrounding proof of effectiveness.
The FDA has scheduled a public meeting in December to discuss Siga’s and Chimerix’s drugs. Siga’s contract requires it to conduct additional studies to seek the agency’s approval.
Lurie said she hoped the FDA would ultimately approve ST-246. “We would not have gone ahead with a procurement unless we thought there was a pathway,” she said.
New York, New York, June 21, 2010 --
...SIGA Technologies, Inc (NASDAQ: SIGA), a company specializing in the development of pharmaceutical agents to combat bio-warfare pathogens, announced today that Andy Stern, labor leader and prominent advocate for reform, joined SIGA's board of directors.
What the heck is a small pox drug? We have been given small pox shots since way back when, and they work.
...Stern is referred to as one of "the chief architects of healthcare reform" in Modern Healthcare magazine's ranking of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare for 2009. Stern has been named to MH's annual "movers and shakers in healthcare" list for five years in a row.
Stern is an ardent supporter of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. [31] Stern has been a frequent visitor to the White House since Obama's election. Between Inauguration Day and February 23, 2011, Stern visited the White House 53 times.
Under Stern, the SEIU has poured millions into a group called Health Care for America NOW!, which set up pavilions at nearly every major health care protest in 2009, and has given the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now nearly $6 million since 2006 including $250,000 in 2009
More money laundering from Zero and his admin.
Another Rat money laundering plan.
WHY? is what I would like to know, it did no harm to have the inoculations, so why stop them.
Want to guess where those inoculations came from, what source, SMALLPOX virus itself. Now they say that is not safe, guess not, cause it don't cost enough.
After Solyndra, I began wondering if our bailout money was being deliberately targeted for bankrupt companies, to ensure it would be sufficiently squandered. I wonder it that's the case with SIGA, too.
follow the moola
He is part of a circle of corrupt people using public funds to enrich each other
Stern was the number one visitor to the White House during Obamacare push, funding from SEIU helped elect Obama, plus he was closely tied to ACORN.
They stopped giving the vaccinations because smallpox no longer exists “in the wild”.
A contract for a smallpox drug? Half a billion dollars worth? Who on earth could it have possibly been tested on? Nobody has had smallpox for years. That passed FDA testing requirements for safety and efficacy? Impossible.
The corruption is out in the open for anyone to see. Too bad the henchmen know that the average voter won't bother to look that deep. At least, that's what they're betting on.
In May of this year, Robert G. Kosko Jr., a manager in the FDAs antiviral-products division, wrote that there was no clear regulatory path for approving antiviral drugs for smallpox again because of the uncertainty surrounding proof of effectiveness.
I'm all for bringing back the "discredited and inhumane" practice of offering clemency to selected death row inmates for offering themselves for testing. It is in essence a form of restitution, it is founded in repentance, and it demands an act of faith. It is quick, definitive, and statistically irrefutable.
I am stunned that the LA Times has this article.
Good point, including the corrupt pattern of this administration.
How large acceptable risk is depends on the death rate of the virus, (Does it kill nine in ten or one in ten million) and how likely it is that you will come in contact with it.
In the case of the smallpox vaccine you had one change in one hundred thousand of having a life threatening reaction and a two in a million chance of dying. That is really good odds except if there is no chance of you catching the virus in the wild. In which case it is easy to argue that you killed them for no reason.
That is the reason they stopped giving the vaccine.
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