An Israeli pharmaceutical firm is set to handle distribution in its home country of biological-weapon treatments and vaccines produced by a U.S. biotechnology company, the Baltimore Business Journal reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 7).
A newly signed deal establishes Medison Pharma as Israel's sole distributor of countermeasures manufactured by the Maryland firm PharmAthene, representatives from the U.S. firm said yesterday. They added that Medison Pharma would obtain government authorization for the drugs as well as promote and deliver them.
The companies did not disclose the agreement's financial details.
PharmAthene CEO David Wright noted in a press release “the importance of procuring next-generation biodefense products to protect (Israel’s) military and civilian populations from the threat of biological and chemical warfare.”
Meanwhile, PharmAthene remains in the running for a contract worth as much as $600 million to provide 25 millions doses of a next-generation anthrax vaccine for the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, the Business Journal reported. The Health and Human Services Department could select its supplier by the end of 2008 (see GSN, Oct. 6; Robert Terry, Baltimore Business Journal, Nov. 19).