Three former state employees from Lansing's anthrax vaccine lab are not entitled to royalties for their role in making the drug, a state arbitrator has ruled.
The decision affects three workers who had 75 years of combined experience in the public health field, mostly at a former state lab - now a private company called BioPort Corp., sole maker of the vaccine used by the U.S. military to combat a deadly biological weapon.
Dr. George Burgoyne, Richard Hoort and Judith Boice worked for the lab when it was owned by the state and called the Michigan Biologic Products Institute. They say they developed the technology now used to make the anthrax vaccine, rabies vaccine and another experimental drug.
The trio claimed they were entitled to a portion of the money made from selling the products to the military, veterinarians and other customers.
An arbitrator for the state's Civil Service Hearing Division ruled last week the former employees are not entitled to royalties because the vaccine processes never were patented. Civil service rules say state employees are entitled to compensation only for products that are patented, state officials say.
"We're obviously disappointed," said Brandon Zuk, attorney for the three workers who filed their grievance in 1998 - the same year the lab was sold to BioPort.
The former employees have until Dec. 26 to file an appeal with the Employment Relations Board, which would hear arguments from both sides and then make a recommendation to the Civil Service Board.
If an appeal is filed, it likely would be before Christmas, Zuk said.
State officials said the ruling supports their contention that royalties weren't owed.
"We thought we were very clear and solid in our efforts," said Geralyn Lasher, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Community Health.
Burgoyne, who headed vaccine production at the lab, retired in 1997. Hoort, a lab scientist under Burgoyne, also retired in 1997.
Boice, a laboratory scientist manager who worked for both of them, transferred to BioPort and is on leave.
The royalties case gained attention in August because of a controversy over documents possessed by the three former workers. BioPort asked the state to help retrieve the documents, which included the recipe for making anthrax vaccine - a protection against a weapon possessed by Iraq and up to nine other nations, according to the Pentagon.
The workers voluntarily returned the documents, but BioPort officials said the papers contained information that the company already had in its possession.
BioPort has not collected much income from its products recently because it does not yet have Food and Drug Administration approval to make new vaccine at its renovated labs. With supplies running low, the military has limited its anthrax vaccine program to soldiers headed for the Persian Gulf.
FDA approval is expected in mid-2001, company officials say.
Contact Tim Martin at 377-1061 or tmartin@lsj.com. Contact A.J. Evenson at 377-1015 or aevenson@lsj.com.
Published 12.05.00