A Medical Device Daily

TVI (Glenn Dale, Maryland) reported it has received a $1.2 million order from the National Guard for the company's Consequence Response Decontamination Systems (CRDS).

“Our CRDS provide mass decontamination, triage of mass casualties and extra working space for emergency response, and consequence management personnel dressed in personal protective equipment,” said President/CEO Richard Priddy. The decontamination systems will be used by the National Guard's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or High-Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) teams. CERFP teams bring together resources within the National Guard to provide support to civil authorities during times of crisis. The teams are trained to provide decontamination and medical care to people exposed to chemical, biological, or other hazardous agents.

TVI supplies rapidly deployable first receiver and first responder systems for homeland security, hospitals, the military, police and fire departments, and public health agencies.

• McKesson Specialty (San Francisco), a unit of McKesson Corporation, reported that it has been selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta) to provide nationwide distribution services for its Vaccine for Children program. The program serves about 1.8 million uninsured and underinsured children, as well as American Indian, Alaska Native, and Medicaid-eligible children through more than 44,000 provider sites. The three-year, multimillion-dollar contract includes two potential one-year extensions.

The Vaccines for Children program is the CDC's largest public-private partnership. The program provides publicly purchased vaccines for use by healthcare providers in all 50 states, plus the U.S. territories. The vaccines, which include measles, rubella and chickenpox, are given to eligible children without cost to the provider or the parent. In 2004, the program purchased about 40% of the total number of doses of pediatric vaccines distributed in the U.S.

McKesson's contract will be administered under the CDC Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project, an initiative begun in 2003 to modernize public-sector vaccine management. McKesson will centralize and streamline CDC's inventory process, which is expected to lessen the likelihood of vaccine emergencies, reduce vaccine loss, improve the consistency and reliability of the vaccine supply, and reduce costs.

“Over the next 60 days, we will be working closely with the CDC to prepare for the start of the transition to centralized distribution,” said Jim Walsh, senior vice president of McKesson's Federal Government Business. “I am confident that McKesson will bring notable improvements in supply chain management and in the process, provide real-time information to the CDC in areas such as financial management and congressionally mandated stockpile requirements.”

McKesson Specialty delivers services to ensure pharmaceutical products, coordinated reimbursement, and clinical services are available to patients.