HHS TO SUBSIDIZE STATE ANTIVIRAL DRUG PURCHASE

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today announced a contract award with GlaxoSmithKline to provide zanamivir (Relenza) to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories and three Freely Associated States of the Pacific at a federally subsidized price. The contract will run for a period of two years with an initial contract award amount of $16,833,000.

Under the HHS contract, 59 jurisdictions will be able to purchase at a federally negotiated price from GSK and will receive a 25 percent federal subsidy for a prescribed number of treatment courses.

The contract allows states to purchase up to 15.5 million antiviral treatment courses as part of the HHS program to assure that the country has stockpiles to cover at least 25 percent of the U.S. population. The jurisdictions' part of the overall stockpile program totals 31 million treatment courses. In addition to these 31 million federally-subsidized, state-purchased treatment courses of antiviral drugs, which will reside in the states, the federal government will purchase 44 million antiviral treatment courses for state use which will be stored in the Strategic National Stockpile.