COLUMBUS — The free vaccines provided last week to thousands of northeast Ohio high school students and staff against a meningitis-related disease will cost about $400,000.

        The state Controlling Board on Monday approved a request by the Department of Health to pay a Pennsylvania company $397,950 for the vaccines without entering a competitive bidding process.

        The department bought the vaccines from Aventis Pasteur Inc., in Swiftwater, Pa.

        The GOP-controlled controlling board consists of three House and three Senate members and a governor's representative. It has the final say on many of the state's major spending requests.

        The state has provided the free vaccination shots to about 5,800 people from six high schools near Alliance as a precaution.

        A bacterial meningitis outbreak killed two teen-agers last month and sickened a third.

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