WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Government has awarded a $21.9 million contract for 450,000 doses of two emergency drugs for radiation exposure.
The treatments are intended for use in the advent of a nuclear terrorist attack.
The contract, announced Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services, was awarded to Akorn Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill., for the manufacture and delivery of 390,000 doses of Ca-DTPA (Pentetate Calcium Trisodium Injection Sterile Solution) and 60,000 doses of Zn-DTPA (Pentetate Zinc Trisodium Injection Sterile Solution).
The drugs, called chelators, are used to treat internal contamination with radioactive isotopes of plutonium, americium or curium by reacting with them to form stable ionic complexes that can be safely expelled by the body.
Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA will be used to treat those exposed through contamination from the detonation of radiological dispersal devices, known as dirty bombs, improvised nuclear devices or terrorist attacks against stored radioactive material.
The initial number of doses being purchased under the new contract is based on previous threat assessments of the likely medical consequences of a radiological or nuclear incident. Under the terms of the five-year contract, HHS has the option to purchase up to 500,000 additional doses each of Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA.
Akorn has an exclusive marketing and distribution license agreement for the United States with Hameln Pharmaceuticals, a German company that has the only Food and Drug Administration approval for these treatments of radioactive elements.
The FDA granted Hameln Pharmaceuticals orphan-drug exclusivity, an incentive given to companies that develop drugs for rare, serious diseases that are not profitable.
That status gives the company seven years market exclusivity, beginning Aug. 11, 2004, the date of approval of its new drug application.
