U.S. drug maker Emergent BioSolutions began speeding up its acquisition of drug supplies beginning early last year, as the coronavirus outbreak was erupting in China. In addition to producing drugs like the opioid overdose-reversing Narcan nasal spray, the firm develops vaccines and antibody therapeutics and had scored lucrative contracts for key biodefense medicines over the decades.

During the Obama administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded the Maryland-based company with a contract worth up to nearly $1 billion in anthrax vaccine doses in 2016.

In late January last year, the company’s executives presented  a white paper for federal health officials, that showed the Trump administration how it could enlist the pandemic vaccine factory funded by President Obama nearly a decade ago.

In the wake of the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic, the Obama administration …continued .
[Source: CBS News]