LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Acambis PLC said the US Department of Defense (DoD) is transitioning to the company's ACAM2000 as its only smallpox vaccine.

Dryvax, the vaccine in use since 2002, will continue to be used till Feb 29, after which ACAM2000 will be the sole vaccine.

The UK vaccine specialist said doses of ACAM2000 are being supplied to DoD by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the military needs the vaccine to inoculate troops against biological weapons that may contain the virus.

Acambis chief executive, Ian Garland said: "This is in line with our ongoing discussions to secure ACAM2000 production for the US for the long term and we are proceeding in line with the process to contract award that we outlined previously". tfn.newsdesk@thomson.com pvi/ukn/ejb

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