State-owned lab has special niche in vaccine research

Vaccine shortages sometimes lead to thoughts of publicly owned manufacturers. Massachusetts has been there and still does that.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Nov. 17, 2003.

Washington -- A fortuitous legacy in Massachusetts' history has left the state with the only publicly owned, federally licensed manufacturer of vaccines and other biologic products in the nation -- long after other states abandoned similar facilities.

The presence of the 109-year-old nonprofit Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories continues to benefit the state, the nation and maybe even the world, given the facility's recently reported advance toward developing a SARS vaccine.

As private companies drop out of the vaccine manufacturing business because of low profits, Massachusetts maintains this part of the public health safety net -- thanks to its labs. Two years ago, for instance, the facility's ability to produce tetanus vaccine spared Massachusetts from facing the sudden shortage that plagued the rest of the nation's physicians.

Ultimately, the facility not only supplied tetanus vaccine within state lines but to other places as well.

"We were able to step up to the plate, increase our manufacturing and essentially help meet the need by delivering two million doses outside of Massachusetts," said Donna Ambrosino, MD, the director of the laboratories and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.

In 1997, the Massachusetts Legislature transferred operations of the biologic laboratories from the state Dept. of Public Health to the U. Mass. Medical School. But the mandate of the labs under their new sponsorship by the university remained to "maintain their public purpose, preserving their ability to compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace and maximize their value to the Commonwealth."