Former SEIU boss Andy Stern doesn’t quite deserve all of the credit. After all, SIGA Technologies’ scientists did come up with ST-246 (a smallpox vaccine) long before Stern was brought on board to pitch the company to his friends in Washington. However, hiring Andy Stern (who happened to have a key to the back door of the White House) was most assuredly a good investment since, a mere four months after his hiring to SIGA’s board of directors, SIGA was awarded the brass ring of contracts that may be valued up to $2.8 Billion.

SIGA Technologies Inc. in New York, New York said today it received notice that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), intends to award a contract for the company’s smallpox antiviral for the strategic national stockpile. SIGA says a protest from another company in the competition for the award first needs to be resolved before the award can take place.

[snip]

Under the contract, BARDA calls for SIGA to deliver 1.7 million courses of its smallpox drug. The base contract, once awarded, is expected to generate revenues of about $500 million, with the entire contract, if all options are exercised, generating revenues of up to $2.8 billion.

While it appears to have helped having friends with friends in high places, in order for Stern to fully realize his value to SIGA, the company must first win the lawsuit that goes to trial on Monday over whether SIGA fully owns the rights to the vaccine (after a failed merger).

Note: If you had bought 100 shares of SIGA for $676 when Andy Stern joined the company back in June, your money would be worth $1400 today.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know if any current or former SEIU officers (or other union bosses) or their relatives bought SIGA around the time Andy Stern joined the board of directors?

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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.”  Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.