Washington: Military wants to limit anthrax vaccinations

The Pentagon wants to abandon its policy of anthrax vaccinations for all troops and limit shots to those with the highest risk, officials said Friday.

In attempting to rebuild a program hobbled for two years by a drug shortage, officials are considering such issues as intelligence assessments, dosing requirements and other national security considerations, said Jim Turner, Pentagon spokesman on health issues.

The program was started in 1998 to vaccinate all 2.4 million members of the active and reserve military but was radically reduced after factory violations by the nation’s sole anthrax vaccine manufacturer left the Pentagon with a dwindling supply.

In addition, there was reluctance by some soldiers to take the shots.

New Jersey: Drug maker to pay record fine of $500 million for violations

Drug maker Schering-Plough said Friday it would pay the federal government a record fine of at least $500 million because of quality-control violations at its New Jersey and Puerto Rico plants.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was the biggest fine in agency history. It said FDA inspectors had found significant, repeated and widespread violations at four plants during inspections dating to 1998.

The FDA gave few details about the nature of the violations. But Schering-Plough the maker of the blockbuster allergy medication Claritin said all of its products on the market were safe and effective.

Colorado: Airman gets life sentence for series of sexual assaults

An Air Force airman charged with murder in Philadelphia was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to a string of sexual assaults in the Colorado college town of Fort Collins.

Troy Graves, 30, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and seven other counts in a series of attacks last year on six women near the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins.

Public defender Kathryn Hay said Graves entered his plea with the understanding that he would serve his term in Colorado and that Pennsylvania authorities would not pursue the death penalty.

In Philadelphia, Graves is accused of strangling University of Pennsylvania graduate student Shannon Schieber, 23, in 1998 and five sexual assaults between 1997 and 1999.

New York: Five companies, seven people charged in fake Viagra case

Seven people and five companies have been indicted on charges of making and selling counterfeit versions of the anti-impotence drug Viagra.

Defendants in China and India made the pills while others in Nevada, Colorado and Hong Kong sold them over the Internet to distributors, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau said Friday.

Undercover investigators bought 25,000 fake pills for about $38,000, Morgenthau said.

Viagra is made exclusively by Pfizer Corp. The blue, diamond-shaped pills cost about $10 each retail.