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