from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
US agronomist Dr Charles Benbrook is advising Australian farmers and policy makers not to follow North America down the biotech cul-de-sac.
"Across the southeastern US, where soybean and cotton farmers have relied almost exclusively on GM technology for several years, the system is on the brink of collapse, the volume of herbicides used is setting new records and farmers' profit margins are shrinking," Benbrook warns. (BENBROOK TOUR / GM FARMING).
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS
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BENBROOK TOUR / GM FARMING
FOOD SAFETY
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
SOUTH AMERICA
AUSTRALASIA
LOBBYWATCH
VACCINE SCANDALS
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BENBROOK TOUR / GM FARMING
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+ GM CROPS A FLOP IN THE USA, BENBROOK TELLS OZ
Non-GM farmers are continually told by the biotech industry and its supporters that they are suffering a huge competitive disadvantage by not growing GM crops. And Australian famers, in particular, have recently been on the receiving end of intensive lobbying to this effect.
But according to the leading independent US agronomist, Dr Charles Benbrook, "US farmers have lost billions of dollars in export sales" as a result of GMOs. Dr Benbrook is touring Australia (Nov 28 - Dec 9, 2005) to warn government ministers and farmers about the problems with the first decade of GM crops in the US.
"Across the southeastern US, where soybean and cotton farmers have relied almost exclusively on GM technology for several years, the system is on the brink of collapse, the volume of herbicides used is setting new records and farmers' profit margins are shrinking," Benbrook points out.
Based on his analysis of the US experience, Benbrook predicts that widespread planting of today's GM crops "will erode the sovereignty of Australian agriculture and allow multinational companies to gain a larger piece of the profit pie at the expense of farmers."
Details of the Australian tour are at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5985
+ CANADIAN FARMERS GET $1.2 BILLION PROP
The Canadian Government has announced federal assistance aimed at propping up Canada's grains and oilseeds producers - including producers of soya and canola - to the tune of $1.2 billion. The extra money is to help them deal with "unprecedented [and unspecified] challenges" they have encountered in recent years.
Loss of market access is certainly one to consider. According to a Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) economic study of GM crops, "the US share of the EU's maize imports has fallen to virtually zero (from around 2/3 in the mid-1990s), as has Canada's share of EU canola imports (from 54% in the mid-1990s). GM-adopting countries have lost market share to GM-free suppliers".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5985
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FOOD SAFETY
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+ T J HIGGINS - DISINGENUOUS OR JUST DISHONEST?
The spin on the recent Australian study showing harmful effects in mice from consumption of GM peas was principally provided by the biotechnologist who developed the GM peas - T. J. Higgins.
Higgins' claims both that the study shows that the regulatory system is working and that "there isn't a single piece of evidence that [GM food's] any less safe than conventional food."
As to the former claim, Julie Newman of the Network of Concerned Farmers points out that, "Health testing is only done by the company that is wanting approval for release but luckily, CSIRO did these voluntary feeding tests. Why aren't these feeding tests compulsory?" Dr Brian John calls the latter claim simply "a lie, typical of the lies pushed out by those who promote the interests of the GM industry".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5968
+ GM PEA TEST DOES NOT SHOW REGULATORY PROCESS IS WORKING - EXPERT
Excerpt from interview for ABC News:
PAULA KRUGER [ABC reporter]: The CSIRO has tried to spin a positive out of the failed project by saying it shows that measures designed to protect the public from unsafe GM products are effective.
But that is not the view of Dr Judy Carmen the Director of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research.
JUDY CARMEN: First of all, I think the people who did this study should be congratulated, because this is the kind of study that should be done on all GM foods.
... One of the problems with this study is that, as I said, it hasn't actually been done with other GM foods and needs to be done.
So while Dr T J Higgins is saying that this shows that the regulatory process is working, unfortunately it doesn't, because this pea has never made it to the regulatory process.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5969
+ GM PEA SCIENTIST CALLS FOR MORE TESTING OF GM CROPS
According to New Scientist, Paul Foster of the Australian National University in Canberra, who led the immunological work on the GM pea is "calling for improvements in screening requirements for genetically engineered plants, to ensure comprehensive tests are carried out."
EXCERPT: [Foster] adds that slight differences in protein synthesis might also occur in other plants with other genes, meaning each new GM food should be very carefully evaluated for potential health effects. "If a GM plant is to go up for human consumption, there should be a detailed descriptive list of how one should go about analysing that plant," he says.
[Jeremy] Tager [of Greenpeace] agrees. It is rare for an investigation of the potential health effects of a GM product to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, he adds. "If it had been a private company doing this, it might never have seen the light of day," he says.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5971
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ASIA
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+ CHINA SLOWS GM RICE PLAN AS CONCERNS MOUNT
China is applying the brakes to its plan to produce the world's first GM rice for human consumption as concerns mount over safety, especially with reports that illegal transgenic rice is already being sold in some provinces.
Scientists and activists say that China's biosafety committee is unlikely to reach a consensus at a meeting this week on commercialisation of GM rice for the world's biggest producer and consumer of the grain.
The government has added more food and environment safety experts to the committee, which is to examine and make recommendations to Beijing on four varieties of insect or disease resistant GMO rice varieties in the pipeline.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5976
+ MORE DEMOCRACY IN CHINA THAN US?
Public must be involved in GM decisions - China Daily
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5987
+ S. KOREA CLONING PIONEER DISGRACED
A cloning pioneer regarded as a hero in his South Korean homeland has resigned and apologised for using human eggs from his own researchers.
Professor Hwang Woo-suk was chairman of the World Stem Cell Hub, which opened this month, based in Seoul. "I am very sorry that I have to tell the public words that are too shameful and horrible," he announced publicly. "Being too focused on scientific development, I may not have seen all the ethical issues related to my research."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5986
+ MOVE TO LIFT BAN ON GM CROP TRIALS IN THAILAND
GM papaya trials in Thailand have previously led to a major contamination scandal triggering the costly cancellations of export orders and a plummeting price for the fruit on the domestic market. But that isn't stopping Thailand's ag ministry from suggesting more of the same. The agriculture department plans to ask the cabinet to lift the ban on field trials of GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5981
+ PAPAYA PATENTS ARE OURS - U.S. RESEARCHER
A US researcher who directed the GM papaya research project in Thailand insists agriculture officials knew from the outset that any benefits from the programme between Cornell University and Thai researchers would belong to the American university.
Dennis Gonsalves, a former researcher of Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station who supervised the project, said Thai officials were told of the university's plan to patent any discoveries.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5978
+ NGOs OBJECT TO PAPAYA SYMPOSIUM BEING USED TO PUSH GM
The Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) and Sahabat Alam Malaysia are concerned that the International Symposium on Papaya being held in Genting Highlands November 22-24 will be an avenue for biotechnology industries to promote GM papaya.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5978
+ MONSANTO, SYNGENTA STILL INVOLVED IN CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA
Over the last few years a series of reports have exposed the involvement of Monsanto and other multinationals in largescale child labour in India, as part of cotton seed production.
In 2003, for instance, a report showed, "around 17,000 children work for Monsanto and their Indian subsidiary Mahyco. These children get no education, earn less than 40 Eurocents (Rs. 20) a day and are exposed to poisonous pesticides like Endosuphan during their work. More than 11.000 children work under similar conditions for the multinationals Syngenta (Swiss), Advanta (Dutch-British) and Proagro (owned by Bayer from Germany)."
The report gave the following example:
"Take Narasamma. She is 12 years old and she worked in the cotton seed fields for the last three years. She sleeps in a cattle shed with other migrant children and works more than 13 hours a day with two breaks. She regularly gets ill after being sprayed with pesticides. She is paid Rs. 800 a month."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=857
For companies like Monsanto and Syngenta, who say they want to transform the lives of the world's poor, these reports have been seriously bad news and they have claimed that they have now acted to remedy the situation.
But a new report written by the independent Indian researcher, Dr. Davuluri Venkateswarlu, and the British agricultural economist, Lucia da Corta from Oxford University, reveals that seed companies operating in India are still "responsible for large-scale child (bonded) labour and for evading India's minimum wage laws."
As the press release accompanying the report notes, the seed companies "are paying Indian farmers who are producing their cotton seed almost 40% too little to enable them to hire adults for the local minimum wage of Rs.52 (Euro1,-) instead of children. The companies are multinationals like Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta but also Indian companies like Nuziveedu Seeds, Raasi Seeds and Ankur Seeds."
Child labour is also being perpetuated through a flawed inspection system.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5970
+ GOVERNOR ASKS MADHYA PRADESH GOVT TO PROBE FAILURE OF BT COTTON
The governor of Madhya Pradesh, Balram Jakhar, has asked the state government to find out the causes for failure of Bt cotton. Mr Jakhar said, "Farmers had purchased Bt cotton seeds at exhorbitantly higher prices with a hope that it would give better yields. But matters have turned out different and now farmers are in losses and pushed into indebtedness... The farmers need to be adequately compensated for the losses." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5987
+ BT COTTON CAUSING ALLERGY IN MADHYA PRADESH; CATTLE DEAD
An article for WebIndia123.com says Bt cotton is causing allergic ailments among people and that cattle have reportedly died after consuming its seeds.
The report surfaced at a public hearing organised by Dhar district's Krishi Upaj Mandi. A scientist's report, presented during the hearing, said at least 14 cattle perished and several growers fell ill.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5979
+ BIOTECH PROMOTER CONDEMNS AGGRESSIVE MARKETING OF BT COTTON
The National Commission on Farmers (NCF) has criticised seed companies for their "aggressive advertisement" of Bt cotton, a crop which suffered widespread failure in India.
What's so remarkable about this criticism of Bt cotton and its promotion by the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) is that it is headed by MS Swaminathan, a long-time GM promoter.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5967
+ PAYING THE PRICE OF BT COTTON
Bt cotton has come with a huge price tag attached, reports an article in the Hindustan Times. Bt cotton farmers in Nimar are thought to have lost about Rs 400 crore, as nearly half of the crop grown on about 400,000 acres has wilted.
EXCERPT:
In March 2002, regulatory approval was given to Bt cotton for commercial cultivation on the grounds that the Bt cotton field trials gave greater yields, generated higher incomes for farmers and required lesser pesticide sprays than non-Bt cotton crop. Mysteriously, the detailed results of the field trials have still not been disclosed to the public.
A recent survey conducted by the Beej Swraj Abhiyan in association with two NGOs, Sampark and WASP in Jhabua and Dhar districts, belie the tall claims made by Bt cotton seed makers.
While Bt cotton growers incurred an expenditure of Rs 2127.13 per acre on fertilisers, wages, pesticides and irrigation, non-Bt cotton farmers spent just Rs 1014.86 per acre. While a 450-gm packet of Bt cotton seed cost around Rs 1600-2000, a non-Bt cotton packet cost between Rs 400-500. Moreover, the difference in pesticide sprays for both Bt cotton sprays and non-Bt cotton sprays was not statistically significant.
Finally, Bt cotton growers earned a net profit of Rs 1493.53 per acre, non Bt cotton farmers earned Rs 2663.12 per acre, that is, about 75 per cent more. Clearly, in economic terms, Bt cotton farmers have been left high and dry!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5974
+ FACT-FINDING TEAM FINDS BT COTTON DEFECTIVE
The Fact Finding Team (FFT) who visited villages in the Nanded district of Maharashtra found almost all the Bt cotton plots ''adversely affected''. The team, headed by agriculture scientist from YUVA, Nagpur Palash Ranjan Ghohal and Kavitha Karuganti of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Secunderabad, said all plants were red in colour, mostly leaves and stem. There was also stunted growth and average number of bolls per plant was only around 15-20 bolls per plant.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5977
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EUROPE
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+ COMMISSION AUTHORISES DANISH GM COMPENSATION SCHEME
The European Commission has authorised Denmark to pay compensation in cases where farmers with conventional or organic production suffer economic losses when GM material is found in their crops. This is the first case where the Commission has authorised such state aid. The compensation will be granted only if the presence of GM material exceeds 0.9% and is limited to the price difference between the market price of a crop that has to be labelled as containing GM material and a crop for which no such labelling is required. The compensation is entirely financed by obligatory contributions from farmers who cultivate GMOs.
The payment of compensation does not free the GM farmer from any civil or criminal liability under Danish law. The Danish authorities will in all cases take action to recover the compensation paid from the farmer from whose fields the GM material has spread.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5980
Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth commented:
"We welcome the fact that the Commission has approved measures to ensure that organic and conventional farmers will not have to foot the bill for any GMO contamination in Denmark. However, the new Danish law does not go far enough to prevent this contamination occurring in the first place. Friends of the Earth is calling for tough EU-wide laws to that truly protect our food, farming and environment from any GMO contamination. And biotech companies must be held strictly liable for any damage their products cause."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5984
+ GM MCSWEENEY BITS THE DUST
Biochemist Barry McSweeney, Ireland's first government science advisor, who has been in the post for little more than a year, was forced to leave the job last week in the face of repeated questions about whether he obtained his PhD from a "diploma mill."
Many will feel he got his rightful comeuppance for his attempt to cover up an EU study on the risks of GMO crops.
GM Free Ireland point out that McSweeney, who at one time headed BioResearch Ireland which aimed to develop Irish biotech companies, was CEO of the EU Joint Research Centre immediately prior to assuming his Chief Scientific Officer post in 2004:
"While head of that organisation, McSweeney attempted to suppress the publication of the EC's official 'Scenarios for Co-existence' report on the feasibility of introducing GM crops in EU member states. The study concludes that GM crops inevitably contaminate conventional and organic crops and may cause 40% higher production costs for EU farmers. Mr McSweeney wrote to the EC recommending that the report should not be made public, stating 'given the sensitivity of the issue, I would suggest that the report be kept for internal use within the Commission only.'"
McSweeney's ties to the biotech industry include being a former Director of BioResearch Ireland and Biocon Biochemicals.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5973
+ IRELAND'S ROLE AS BIOTECH STOOGE
Ireland has become a biotech stooge in Europe, says GM Free Ireland. In 1997, Ireland's governing party Fianna Fail issued a policy statement promising never to allow GM crops in Ireland. But following a White House luncheon with US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger on St Patrick's Day 1998, Bertie Ahern has actively supported the biotech industry's efforts to force GM food and crops into Europe. In fact, a whole series of key Irish decision makers and agenda setters have had links to the biotech industry. Ireland has never voted against legalising GM crops in the European Parliament, against the wishes of 70% of consumers and the majority of Member States
More: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5962
+ GM CROPS CHIEF SUSPENDED IN JOB ROW
The chief executive of FuturaGene, the GM crops group, has been suspended after refusing to accept a demotion. Non-executives at a highly charged board meeting suggested Bruno Ruggiero, the Italian biologist who founded FuturaGene in 2001, should move to a new post of chief scientific officer because of concerns raised about corporate governance.
FuturaGene has developed modified tomatoes and rice. Its shares fell 11 per cent on investor concerns about what the review might uncover.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5986
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AFRICA
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+ U.S. "BRIBED SCIENTISTS" AT KENYA AG RESEARCH INSTITUTE CLAIM
The chairman of the NGO Africa Nature Stream, Masoa Muindi, has claimed that the US bribed scientists at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to protect multinational biotechnology companies to deliver GMO seeds to Kenyan farmers.
He also accused KARI of "pretence" while delivering newly introduced seeds to the farmers from their research stations without declaring to farmers the consequences and the dangers of such inputs. "They have been lying to Kenyans that the new plants will save them from hunger," he charged.
Muindi said the GMO scheme has failed miserably in the developed countries and that is "the reason why they have decided to dump the technology and seeds in Africa".
He requested the American government to stop financing and promoting any kind of food crops and seeds which would adversely affect African economies, adding that the continent, with its climate, fertile soils, rivers and natural water could easily feed its people "with proper management of resources."
The Kenyan government recently had to terminate GM maize experiments being run by KARI, and order the destruction of the crop, after a technician sprayed the trial GM maize crop with a restricted chemical, Furadan, which acts on stem borers. Spraying would have the effect of biasing the results in favour of the GM borer-resistant crop.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5964
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SOUTH AMERICA
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+ BRAZIL'S CORPORATE-CONNECTED SCIENTISTS
As a new biosafety law is coming up in Brazil, several organizations, under the guise of promoting science, but funded and supported by corporations, have been busy lobbying to influence the choice of scientists slated to make up the National Technical Biosafety Commission. A useful article gives details at:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5983
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ MINISTER WON'T MEET ANTI-GM FARMERS
Farmers opposing GM crops are angry Victorian Agriculture Minister Bob Cameron will not meet them during a visit to Horsham in the state's south-west.
The Network of Concerned Farmers' Wimmera representative, Geoffrey Carracher, says he was promised talks with the Minister after his canola crop was contaminated with GM material. Mr Carracher says he has called the Minister several times, but is being ignored.
Mr Carracher says he is still uncertain if he will have to cover losses caused by the contamination. He said, "The GM industry are doing their job properly, they're putting all the liability on to non-GM farmers."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5982
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ REUTERS PUSHING GM AGAIN
Recently Prof David Miller took issue with a Reuters article that claimed GMOs would win acceptance in Africa - "Africa seen accepting GMO crops more in future".
Now Reuters has produced an article, "Population boom pushes Asia to accept GMO rice", saying GM rice will win acceptance in Asia. And, guess what? It suffers from exactly the faults that Prof Miller pointed out to Reuters with regard to their Africa piece.
In that case the Reuters journalist failed to clarify that the source of his story - Florence Wambugu - was not simply "a Kenyan biotech expert" who headed a "non-governmental organisation". In reality, both Wambugu and her lobby group Africa Harvest have significant corporate connections.
The latest article gushes:
"Gurdev Singh Khush, a consultant at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), said opposition by environmental groups and the tedious regulatory process in getting approvals for GM crops have delayed the release of GM rice in the region. But Khush said he expected GM rice to follow the path of GMO corn, which was eventually commercialized starting in the Philippines in 2002, despite protests by groups like Greenpeace."
What the article fails to say is that Khush is also a consultant to the GM bio-pharmaceutical campany Ventria Bioscience, which has been pushing for GM pharma rice trials in the US. The article also fails to explain IRRI's major investment in developing GM rice, as well as in trialing Golden Rice. IRRI is also involved in the US$90 million programme to "improve" grain with micronutrients, known as HarvestPlus or the Challenge Program on Biofortification.
In fact, the IRRI's work on GM rice began as far back as the early 1990s and it has developed plans and resources for releasing GM rice varieties across Asia.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5975
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VACCINE SCANDALS
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+ THE IRRESISTIBLE RISE OF TONY'S CRONY
Another scandal has broken around Lord Drayson, the widely tipped successor to Lord Sainsbury as Blair's Science Minister. BBC's The Money Programme has revealed that his biotech company, PowderJect, sold faulty TB vaccines and kept quiet about it for 21 months, risking the health of thousands of people.
Although the problems with the TB vaccine are the most alarming failures at the PowderJect plant, three different health regulators - the British, the Americans and the Irish - made repeated complaints about PowderJect's TB (BCG), polio, hepatitis and flu jabs.
Inspectors from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) visited the plant twice in 2001 and once in 2003. They found "significant objectionable conditions" at the factory, discovered that four out of five flu vaccine batches destined for the US market failed shelf-life tests and, perhaps most worrying of all, bacterial contamination of the manufacturing process for the flu jab.
In 2003 Mr Drayson sold Powderject to Chiron, an American pharmaceutical giant, for more than £500m. Just over a year later its flu vaccine production line was shut down by the FDA.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5965
+ RUMMY'S BIRD FLU BONANZA PROTECTED FROM LIABILITY
We recently noted how Bush and Blair's ultra-precautionary purchases of vaccines and antivirals happened to suit the financial interests of their own cronies.
The president is seeking US$7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare for the not-imminent not-pandemic danger of bird-flu, including $1 billion for the anti-viral Tamiflu, developed and patented by Gilead Sciences Inc. (part of Roche) when chaired by Donald Rumsfeld, who still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to his federal financial disclosures.
The president is also writing protections for such companies into the bill that some say would make it extremely difficult for those harmed by such a medicine to get any financial compensation. Given the reports coming out of Japan of 12 children's deaths possibly caused by Tamiflu, this could be extremely useful.
Donald Rumsfeld has also done well out of the war on terror. As a precautionary measure against a smallpox attack, Rumsfeld ordered members of the armed forces to be inoculated against smallpox with a package that included injection with the drug Vistide - another product of Gilead Sciences.
In the UK the Ministry of Defence contract for the Blair government's precautionary purchase of large quantities of smallpox vaccine went to Powderject - the biotech company of Blair crony and financial supporter, Paul Drayson, who was also made a Lord and given a job in Blair's government after donating a million pounds to Blair's party.
Perhaps Blair will also be introducing legal protections for vaccine manufacturers, following the BBC's revelations that Drayson's company "sold faulty TB vaccines and kept quiet about it for 21 months, risking the health of thousands of people".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5966