WASHINGTON — The government stands to waste $100 million a year if two federal agencies cannot agree to coordinate the use of a vaccine for the deadly anthrax.
The departments of Defense and Health and Human Services each bought the anthrax vaccine, BioThrax. But much of the vaccine purchased for HHS goes unused, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.
Currently the Strategic National Stockpile has more than 520,000 doses of the vaccine, worth $12 million, that have already expired, the GAO said. As of June, the stockpile had about 10 million doses of the vaccine.
The report said the two departments should create a single inventory system so the drugs are not wasted. The Defense Department gives BioThrax to personnel deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea.
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