Other Companies Blocked From Bidding

Scientists are questioning a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug they say the country doesn't need, amid concerns over the way the project was secured for a firm tied to a Democratic donor.  U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract for the small pox drug to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company. 

The Barack Obama administration replaced the lead negotiator on the project following complaints from Siga.  Siga was concerned about the government's objections to how much money Siga would make off the deal.  When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.

Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a "sole-source" procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation's biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government's specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.

If there were an attack, the government could draw on $1 billion worth of smallpox vaccine it already owns to inoculate the entire U.S. population and quickly treat people exposed to the virus. The vaccine, which costs the government $3 per dose, can reliably prevent death when given within four days of exposure.

Siga's drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints — and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.

The drug has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and there are limits on how it can be tested.  One epidemiologist described the plan as a "waste of time and a waste of money."

This is one more example of Barack Obama's corruption and rewarding his political contributors.  America is on the verge of bankruptcy and Obama wastes $433 million. 

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