By fall 2005, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s well-publicized effort to import vaccines to Illinois amid a national flu scare had failed.
Stymied by federal regulators who wouldn’t allow the unapproved drugs into the country, the Democratic governor was stuck with a $2.6 million bill for medicine expiring in refrigerators on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Critics accused him of grandstanding, debates emerged over whether to pay and Blagojevich searched for someplace that could use the vaccine.
Blagojevich announced his solution in December 2005 — the state would donate the medicine to Pakistan, which was then reeling from an earthquake that had killed 80,000 and left millions homeless.
“We are in a unique position to help thousands of Pakistanis who are struggling to recover from a terrible tragedy,” Blagojevich said in a statement.
It turns out, Pakistani officials say, the vaccines never helped anyone.
Instead, health authorities in Pakistan crushed and burned the half-million doses because they wouldn’t give their people an expired vaccine, according to interviews and government records.
The surprising fate of the vaccine emerged as the Tribune conducted dozens of interviews, reviewed government documents and visited pharmacies, United Nations offices and government ministries in Pakistan seeking to trace the medicine’s path through a country struggling with political strife and corruption.
One thing all theses sources agreed on is that the vaccines were never distributed to the quake victims they were intended to help. Tracking where the flu shots did go was considerably more difficult in Pakistan, where a murky black market thrives and rumor and conspiracy theories abound.
Some sources claimed that not all the vaccine was destroyed and that a portion found its way onto the black market. Exhaustive attempts by the Tribune to confirm this were unsuccessful. After several weeks of repeated requests by the Tribune, Pakistani officials turned over records documenting destruction of the medicine.
The vaccine, received in shipments weighing nearly 9 tons, was refrigerated for months before being destroyed in November 2006, the records show.
Dispute over potency
Pakistani health officials said they accepted the inoculations not knowing they had expired months earlier. They ultimately rejected the assurances of the European distributor, Ecosse Hospital Products Ltd., that the vaccines were independently tested and still potent.
“After all, human beings are equal,” said retired Lt. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan, who ran the Federal Relief Cell that coordinated earthquake relief in the first five months after the disaster. “They are not guinea pigs. And vaccines, if they are not good in one country, they should not be usable in another country.”
The Pakistan government didn’t publicize the destruction of the vaccines, in part, to preserve good relations with an ally.
More Top Picks Futons
“Remember, the vaccine was sent by the Americans,” said a Pakistani government source speaking on the condition on anonymity. “You could get into trouble with diplomatic relations between the two countries.”
The Blagojevich administration last week said it did not keep track of the vaccine shipments once they reached Pakistan. Pakistan “was eager to receive the flu vaccine to use in areas impacted by the earthquake,” a Blagojevich spokeswoman said in a written statement.
The administration said Ecosse, a Scottish company, led the effort to donate the medicine to Pakistan.
An attorney for Ecosse said the company simply followed directions from the Blagojevich administration, which suggested the donation to Pakistan.
“The state somehow came up with the idea. And by the state, I mean the governor’s office,” said Stephen Tagge, a Springfield attorney hired by Ecosse. While the state was looking to find someplace that could benefit from the vaccine, even if it meant donating it, Tagge said, “we were looking for a place to sell it.”
Ecosse officials declined to provide specifics in response to Tribune questions. But on Friday they issued a vague, four-paragraph explanation of how the vaccines were sent to Pakistan, saying the donation was made after a British relief agency approached the company “about availability of medicines.”
“After consulting with the state and receiving its approval,” the statement said, “the vaccine was donated to the government of Pakistan.”
Political battle
Ecosse found itself in the middle of a political fight between Blagojevich, who wanted to pay the bill, and state Comptroller Daniel Hynes, who says he will not write a $2.6 million check for drugs the state never received.
“This was a bad deal from the beginning,” said Hynes, who was surprised when told the vaccines were destroyed. “I just want to make sure that Illinois taxpayers aren’t the ones holding the bag.”
The state auditor general later blasted the governor’s effort as an unlawful attempt to bypass regulators.
It occurred at the same time that Democrats, including Blagojevich, were making drug importation an election-year issue, and railing against the Bush administration for failing to ensure inexpensive prescription drugs were available for Americans. When Blagojevich spearheaded the effort to import flu vaccine, political leaders in New York City, Cleveland and New Mexico joined in.
Ecosse acquired more than a quarter-million doses of vaccine for Illinois, plus hundreds of thousands more for the other governments.
But all the doses stayed in the United Kingdom under the control of Ecosse because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to allow them in, claiming safety concerns.
Fearing it ultimately wouldn’t be compensated for acquiring the vaccine, Ecosse, which only had a contract with Illinois, sued the state in March 2005 for its $2.6 million bill even as it continued to work with the state to find a place for the vaccine.
Pakistani officials seemed receptive to the donation during initial discussions, Illinois and Ecosse officials said.
In an e-mail on Dec. 23, 2005, Ecosse chief executive John Cochrane discussed the donation with Major Gen. Dr. Abdul Qadir Usmani, executive director of the National Institute of Health at Pakistan’s Federal Relief Commission in Islamabad.
Usmani promised in the e-mail the vaccines would clear customs quickly and be stored in a controlled environment until given to high-risk groups, “particularly old age and patients suffering from chronic diseases.”
Donations heralded
On Dec. 30, as the first shipment arrived, Blagojevich announced the donations in a news release, saying he hoped the vaccines “will be put to use to protect people who were left homeless, weak and vulnerable after the devastating earthquake and now are in dire need of protection from influenza this winter.”
He also included a quote from the Pakistani consul general in Chicago, praising “Gov. Blagojevich’s concern for the earthquake victims in Pakistan as well as the Pakistani-Americans who have been tragically touched through loss of family and friends.
“Any effort to help Pakistan in its hour of need is welcome.”
But a Jan. 9, 2006, e-mail obtained by the Tribune shows that just days after receiving the first shipment, Pakistani officials were threatening not to use the vaccine.
“I am deeply frustrated by the Ministry of Health’s refusal to use the vaccines,” Ecosse’s Cochrane wrote in his e-mail to Azhar Mahmood Kayani, the Pakistani prime minister’s personal physician, who negotiated the delivery with Cochrane.
In the e-mail, Cochrane reminded Kayani that the vaccines had been tested and shown to be safe by an independent institute that works for the World Health Organization.
But in interviews with the Tribune, Kayani said Pakistan remained skeptical about using the vaccines.
“We did not ask for these vaccines, and when we accepted them we did not know they were expired.”
The Blagojevich administration said in its statement last week that the last it heard the Pakistanis were happy and the donation was an appropriate ending to a saga.
And the governor, who has previously described his pursuit of the vaccines as “probably the best decision I’ve ever made,” still maintains Illinois should write the check.
– – –
The vaccine trail
OCT. 20, 2004: Amid national reports of a looming shortage of flu vaccines, Gov. Rod Blagojevich pursues buying overseas vaccines.
NOV. 1: The governor asks Ecosse Hospital Products Ltd. of Scotland to find up to 300,000 doses, a request that ultimately leads Illinois to purchase a quarter-million doses for $2.6 million.
NOV. 4: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signs on to the Blagojevich plan.
NOV. 10: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joins the effort.
More Top Picks Canon Pixma Pro 200
NOV. 18: Signs of trouble first emerge when the Blagojevich administration announces a rift between the Food and Drug Administration and a vaccine manufacturer over records regulators require to determine the drug’s safety.
DEC. 21: An internal Blagojevich administration e-mail raises the possibility that the state will never take delivery of the vaccine.
JAN. 11, 2005: Ecosse, which acquired almost 800,000 doses of vaccines for Illinois and other governments without a formal contract, sends a $2.6 million bill to Illinois.
JAN. 13: Blagojevich administration signs a contract with Ecosse, agreeing to pay the bill.
JAN 31: Citing a contract escape clause, Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes refuses to pay for the undelivered vaccines. The Blagojevich administration sides with Ecosse, and seeks to resell the vaccines on the European market.
MARCH 16: Ecosse sues in the Illinois Court of Claims for $2.6 million.
AUGUST: The flu vaccines expire, although health experts later say the vaccines are still good for current strains of the virus. Illinois offers the vaccines to help treat South African AIDS patients. South Africa later declines.
OCT. 8: Pakistan is hit with an earthquake that kills 87,000 people and leaves millions homeless.
DEC. 30: Blagojevich announces the vaccines have been sent to Pakistan for earthquake relief.
JAN. 9, 2006: John Cochrane, chief executive of Ecosse, writes an e-mail seeking to persuade reluctant Pakistani officials to use the vaccine.
SEPT. 19: State Auditor Gen. William Holland slams Blagojevich over his handling of the vaccines, arguing it was unlawful.
NOVEMBER: Pakistan destroys the expired vaccines after declaring them unusable, according to officials and government records.
———-