As assistant secretary for emergency preparedness, Simonson could have made the case within the Bush administration for giving VaxGen an advance on its contract. But that prospect was dimmed after the lobbyists' attacks, said Russell.
"Simonson was neutralized," he said.
Simonson, who left the government in mid-2006, declined to comment on Emergent's lobbying effort.
Neither Conda nor Christie responded to messages seeking comment. Emergent paid their firm, DC Navigators, $340,000 from 2006 through June of this year.
One of Emergent's other lobbying firms, McKenna Long & Aldrich, has taken credit for helping write the Project BioShield law. Seven members of the McKenna firm subsequently registered to lobby for Emergent.
From 2005 through June 2007, Emergent paid the firm $380,000.
Government changes rules
VaxGen's contract called for delivery of the first 25 million doses of vaccine by November 2006.
In May of that year, government health officials extended the deadline three years.
But they also erected new hurdles: They required VaxGen to complete, at the company's expense, new testing of the vaccine in animals, plus an additional study in humans. The original contract had allowed VaxGen to defer such studies until after the company began receiving payments.
VaxGen fought without success for better terms, notably partial payment before delivering the vaccine. It objected to the new regulatory requirements. It kept at work on the stability problem.
After reviewing VaxGen's progress, the FDA on Nov. 2, 2006, denied approval to begin the new study in humans, citing concern about whether the vaccine was stable enough.
On Dec. 19, 2006, the health department canceled VaxGen's contract. By this fall, VaxGen had laid off 90% of its workforce, which peaked two years ago at 295 employees, a spokesman said. The company plans to merge with another Bay Area biotech firm.
In an October report, the Government Accountability Office said that health officials and VaxGen had been "unrealistic" in believing the company could deliver its vaccine on schedule. The GAO also said VaxGen was hindered by regulatory requirements that "were not known" to the company when the contract was awarded.
VaxGen's Gurwith said in an interview that based on lab results, he was convinced as of July that the company had figured out how to maintain the vaccine's stability. Chief executive James P. Panek said that if the government had stood by VaxGen, it probably would have delivered a better vaccine "well ahead" of any other manufacturer and at far lower cost.
