That's the Merck lab at West Point, Montgomery County.VIALS of what was labeled "Smallpox" were reportedly found in a lab freezer in Philadelphia on Monday night - forcing the FBI and the CDC into a frenzy to investigate the incident.
The 15 "questionable vials" were found in the Merck Pennsylvania lab freezer, with 10 labeled as "Vaccinia" and the remaining five labeled as deadly "Smallpox."
According to Yahoo News, which obtained a copy of an unclassified For Official Use Only alert, the vials were secured immediately.
The discovery of the vials forced the facility to go on lockdown, which has since been lifted.
Smallpox is considered so dangerous that only two labs in the world are allowed to store samples of the virus, with one in Russia and the other with the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia.
Scientists have been debating over whether any remaining samples of Smallpox because of the unknown dangers that it could unleash.
Only a small portion of Americans are vaccinated against Smallpox, and those that are would have waning immunity.
The CDC is set to arrive on site to take custody of the vials and will transport them to another facility for testing, Yahoo reported.
Merck plant in Montgomery County will help produce J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine https://www.inquirer.com/business/drugs ... 10311.html
President Biden meets with CEOs from J&J and Merck https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/10/watch-l ... merck.htmlMerck’s factory in West Point, Montgomery County, has been tapped to help expand production of rival Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, Merck announced Thursday.
A Merck factory in Durham, N.C., will manufacture the key drug component of the vaccine, but workers at the West Point facility will mix it with other ingredients and fill vials with the vaccine, which is different from the others on the market because it requires one dose instead of two and is easier to store.
At the earliest, Merck could begin manufacturing the vaccine and filling vials in West Point, Merck’s largest pharmaceutical plant, in late May, the company said.
“We’re seeing two health companies — competitors — each with over 130 years of experience, coming together to help write a more hopeful chapter in our battle against COVID-19,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday at a White House event with the chief executives of Merck and J&J. He called the work by the companies “a historic, nearly unprecedented collaboration.”
During that event, Biden also announced that the administration was doubling its order of the J&J vaccine to 200 million doses. The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine on Feb. 27.
President Joe Biden is holding a meeting Wednesday at the White House with Kenneth Frazier, chairman and CEO of Merck, and Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson.
Earlier Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it plans to buy 100 million additional doses of J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine. The deal would double the nation’s supply of the J&J vaccine as the company already has a deal with the government to provide 100 million doses by the end of June.
