Anthrax Expert Could Have Cashed In on Panic

Bruce Ivins, the government scientist linked to the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings who committed suicide this week, stood to profit from a panic set off by the killings, the Los Angeles Times reports. Ivins, who was close to being charged by the FBI when he killed himself, was listed as a co-inventor on two patents for a vaccine that could have earned him tens of thousands in royalties as the government stockpiled vaccines.

The vaccine had been shelved until 9/11 and the anthrax mailings; in the aftermath, an $877 million contract was awarded to a company expected to produce the vaccine. As it turned out, Ivins was never paid; the company couldn’t make batches quickly enough and the contract was ended. One colleague of Ivins sees a different motive: to wake people up to the need for biological defense. “I don't think he ever intended to kill anybody. He just wanted to prove, ‘Look, this is possible.’” (More Bruce Ivins stories.)