AKORN GETS HHS CONTRACT FOR RADIOLOGICAL OR NUCLEAR INCIDENT TREATMENTS

Specialty pharmaceutical firm Akorn has signed a $21.9 million contract with the HHS for the manufacture and delivery of two medical countermeasures for radiological or nuclear incidents.

Under the contract, Akorn will deliver 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 HHS announced recently.

Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA are chelators used to treat internal contamination with radioactive isotopes of plutonium, americium or curium, according to HHS. Chelators are compounds that react with metals and form stable ionic complexes, allowing the body to safely expel the radioactive materials from the body.

The products would be used to treat individuals contaminated through the detonation of a radiological "dirty bomb," an improvised nuclear device, or a terrorist attack against stored radioactive material, HHS said.

The department noted it has the option to purchase up to 500,000 additional doses of both Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA. The contract award is part of HHS' effort to expand the nation's stockpile of medical countermeasures against the threat of a radiological or nuclear incident, said Stewart Simonson, HHS' assistant secretary for public health emergency preparedness.