Paul Drayson, Powerject chairman
Evans Vaccines (Powerject), plant now owned by Chiron
"THE boss of Britain's biggest vaccines company made a £50,000 donation to Labour two months after winning a £17m NHS contrac.... Powderject, the sixth largest vaccine company in the world, also produces the leading flu vaccine, Fluvirin, vaccines against yellow fever and tetanus, and the Diamorphine pain-killer. ..........Drayson also congratulated the Department of Health on its vaccination programme during the flu epidemic last winter........Ministers had been forced to halt the BCG schools immunisation programme in 1999 after their supplier, Medeva, ran into production problems. ........Powderject later took over the Merseyside-based company, renaming it Evans Vaccines. The Department of Health then negotiated the new BCG contract with Powderject, but at a price more than four times the original £2m a year."--Media
Parliamentary Ombudsman
Investigations Completed July 2003 - June 2004
Department of Health Refusal to provide
information about the awarding of a contract to supply a stock of smallpox
vaccine
Ms Branigan originally asked DoH for a number of pieces of
information relating to the awarding of a contract to PowderJect
Technologies PLC to supply a stock of smallpox vaccine. She then asked
17 Government Departments, including DoH, for information relating to
contacts between their respective Ministers and representatives of
PowderJect. Finally, she asked DoH for several pieces of information
relating to the work of the sub- group of the Joint Committee on
Vaccination and Immunisation, which had given advice on the choice of
the particular smallpox vaccine strain. DoH declined to release most of
the information sought by Ms Branigan and cited a number of code
exemptions in justification. After a protracted investigation, beset by
DoH delays, the Ombudsman recommended that almost all the information
sought by Ms Branigan be released. Following a further exchange of
correspondence, DoH agreed to the release of information which had
already entered the public domain but either refused to address the
remaining recommendations or refused to release the information
recommended for disclosure. The Ombudsman criticised the manner in which
DoH had handled Ms Branigan's information requests and for their failure
to engage effectively with her own investigation.
[Media 2002] PowderJect reports healthy rise in profits
[Media July 2002] Britain 'Bought Wrong Smallpox Vaccine'
[Media Aug 2002] TB vaccine is recalled
[Media April 2002] Labour claims unravel over vaccine deal
Paul Drayson, Powerject chairman