President George W. Bush is hoping his proposed $6 billion “BioShield” will push pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop vaccines and treatments to bioterrorism threats by promising to buy up market slack, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Jan. 29).

“We want to be able to assure drug companies there will be a market for their product, as opposed to making something that nobody will buy,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  “This is a way to guarantee there will be a market whether it is used or stockpiled, and perhaps they will make a modest profit,” he said.

The effort, which is subject to congressional approval, would spur the private sector to develop vaccines and treatments for obscure but deadly diseases such as the Ebola virus or anthrax and smallpox, the Post reported. 

The plan would also enable the National Institutes of Health to lift its salary restrictions to attract top scientists, to renovate laboratories quickly and to restructure staff contracts, Fauci said.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration would be given the power to approve medicines and vaccines for use in a bioterrorist attack.

“We need to do a more aggressive job of developing these countermeasures,” FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said, adding that the $6 billion price tag was reached after “a careful analysis of the threats against this country” (Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, Jan. 30).

Congressional Democrats, however, criticized the president for proposing positive measures but refusing to fund them.

“The president’s call for additional bioterrorism funding is a step in the right direction, but the irony is that the administration continues to block legislative action to give the effort the full resources it needs,” said Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) (Mimi Hall, USA Today, Jan. 30).

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