HC Deb 23 July 2002 vol 389 cc1086-7W
Mr. Bellingham

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the smallpox contract awarded to Powderject is estimated to represent profit for Powderject. [67547]

Mr. Hutton

The Department has made no such estimate. Before letting the contract to Powderject, the prices offered by other companies for similar products were compared, and comparisons were made with the price being paid by the United States Government for its smallpox vaccine. On the basis of consideration of all the price information available relating to similar products, the vaccine was deemed to represent value for money.

Mr. Bellingham

To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reason he has chosen to purchase a smallpox vaccine which is of a different strain from that ordered by the US Administration. [67544]

Mr. Hutton

The choice of smallpox vaccine strain took into account expert advice under the auspices of a specially convened sub-group of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The advice of the JCVI sub-group was that there was no difference between the two strains on scientific grounds. Vaccines based on both strains were considered to have been effective in the past. However, the JCVI sub-group concluded that there was a greater body of evidence to demonstrate the efficacy of the Lister strain rather than for the New York City Board of Health strain, and that the smallpox vaccine has been challenged in the field more often by the more severe form of smallpox (variola major) with the strain chosen by the United Kingdom Government. The JCVI sub-group also recommended that using a different strain of vaccine from that used in the United States offered the greatest safeguard if difficulties arose with the production of either strain, ensuring that the alternative strain could act as a fallback.