While the anthrax vaccine has begun shipment from Lansing-based BioPort Corp., a National Academy of Sciences panel has asked the U.S. Defense Department to improve the vaccination process.
On Wednesday, the panel released a report that says there is no evidence to show major side effects from the vaccine. Officials have been studying it since September 2000.
The committee met with several people who said they have experienced complications after taking the vaccine, committee chairman Brian Strom said. He also serves as the director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania.
“We saw no evidence of anything serious and long-lasting,” he said. “Any vaccine has risks. Our question was, ‘Is it worth the risk?’”
The report found that any reactions from the anthrax vaccine are common reactions to any vaccination process. These include muscle pain, skin redness and occasional feeling of discomfort.
Some recipients of the vaccine also reported itching or swelling at the injection site, which could be a result of the vaccine being injected under the skin rather than into the muscle, which is how many vaccines are administered.
But the panel did ask the Defense Department to investigate the process to get vaccinated. The current process, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1970, involves six shots during an 18-month period and a booster shot every year.
The Defense Department has said it will investigate and plans to issue a report in seven months.
“I think the vaccine is an old vaccine, the technology is old technology. We can do better these days,” Strom said.
The only manufacturer of the vaccine, Lansing’s BioPort, took over the product from a state-run lab in 1998. But the company was not allowed to begin full production until February.
The FDA had cited mismanagement at the company, which led the pharmaceutical company to retool its facility.
BioPort will produce 2 million vaccine doses this year and between 3 million and 8 million next year, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has said.
