Siga appeals ruling to save contract


Siga Technologies, a biotech firm that employs about 50 in Corvallis, is appealing a federal decision that could cost the company billions.

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Siga Technologies, a biotech firm that employs about 50 in Corvallis, is appealing a federal decision that could cost the company billions.

Last month Siga was awarded a contract by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, to produce 1.7 million courses of a novel smallpox drug for the Strategic National Stockpile. The $500 million contract, awarded under a small-business set-aside program, included provisions that could escalate the value of the deal to $2.8 billion.

Rival bidder Chimerix Inc. appealed the award to the Small Business Administration on the grounds that Siga was too big to qualify for the small-business set-aside. On Friday, an SBA official upheld that appeal.

Now Siga has announced plans to appeal that ruling in hopes of salvaging the BARDA contract.

Read more at the Gazette-Times.

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