An English company has sued the State of Illinois for $2.6 million over thousands of doses of flu vaccine the state never received.

In papers filed with the Illinois Court of Claims on March 16, Ecosse contends that it fulfilled its requirements under the contract by identifying, acquiring and storing "approximately 254,250" units of vaccine. But because the federal Food and Drug Administration never authorized the importation of the drugs, no doses have made it to the United States.

On Jan. 31, over the objections of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Comptroller Dan Hynes - a fellow Democrat - announced that he would not authorize payment for the vaccines.

A letter on that day from the comptroller's chief of staff, Keith Taylor, to the governor's chief of staff, Lon Monk, questioned why it took the governor's office three months and four days to submit the contract to the comptroller's office. Taylor also wrote that because the FDA never approved the importation, Article 2.6 of the contract lets the state off the hook.

"Failure by either party to perform its duties and obligations will be excused by unforeseeable circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including ... governmental regulation," the contract states.

Blagojevich said he was asked by some of the overseas vendors when the deal was being made whether Illinois would pay even if importation didn't occur.

"My answer was then 'yes,' and it is still today," he said Thursday during an Oak Park news conference. "And when I think about all the decisions I've made as governor, I would say that's probably the best decision I ever made, because I'm not going to let red tape or some bureaucratic mindset keep me from doing what I can do to make sure we have flu vaccines for the sick, for the elderly, for kids in hospitals and for men and women who are suffering from cancer or AIDS."

On Nov. 4, 2004, Blagojevich and Richardson issued a press release that stated, "New Mexico has purchased 150,000 doses of vaccine out of Illinois' total shipment of 300,000 doses."

But New Mexico, which received a bill from Ecosse on Jan. 11, disputes that it owes the firm anything.

In a Feb. 25 letter to Ecosse, Jennifer Stone, the New Mexico Department of Health general counsel, wrote that her state has neither obligation nor authority to issue payment.

"New Mexico has never received any 'flu doses' or directly received any other product or service from your company, so the certification appears incorrect. The certification is also incorrect in that it, again, refers to a 'Contract,' a document that does not exist," Stone's letter stated.

New Mexico health department spokeswoman Deborah Davis said the two governors had only a "verbal agreement" that New Mexico would purchase the doses from Illinois, not Ecosse.