U.S. Response:  Official Urges Funding for Project Bioshield

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. official today encouraged Congress to fund Project Bioshield, the Bush administration plan to spur biological weapons vaccine research, development and procurement (see GSN, May 23).

A House bill proposed by the White House, the Project Bioshield Act, would authorize $5.6 billion in funds to be spent over 10 years to induce the U.S. pharmaceutical industry to increase investment in vaccines and treatments for biological weapons diseases through multiyear authorization of funding and liability-limiting provisions (see GSN, April 7).

“The intent of asking for mandatory funding is to provide assurance to big industry that large dollar amounts would be there,” according to Philip Russell, senior adviser for vaccine development and production in the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Public Health and Preparedness.

In using the term “mandatory,” Russell was referring to bill language designating the $5.6 billion as a “special reserve fund,” from which the homeland security secretary could draw through 2013 to procure vaccines and other medical products after declaring a state of emergency.

He told a conference here today that the purchase of vaccines and drugs would require “very large numbers” of dollars, so “we opted for mandatory funding because we thought it was the best way to assure industry that we were truly serious and that the money would be there.”

The bill, notably, would permit the homeland security secretary to declare a national emergency and authorize release of a drug or device not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in an emergency, would provide government compensation for injuries resulting from smallpox vaccinations, and would guarantee procurement of certain vaccines.

The House Government Reform Committee approved a version of the legislation last month and the bill will now be considered by the Homeland Security Committee.  A Senate version awaits floor action. 

The legislation has been criticized by some lawmakers who have questioned the need and the wisdom of atypical multiyear funding authority, and whether the bill’s focus on developing vaccines and drugs for anthrax, smallpox and botulinum toxin might drive potential terrorists to focus on agents that cause other diseases.

The Congressional Budget Office, furthermore, published a report in April concluding the bill’s cost could actually be $2.5 billion more than the $5.6 billion the Bush administration has estimated and the bill would authorize (see GSN, May 9).

DynPort Vaccine Company, attending the conference, provided a chart showing that most progress has been made developing vaccines for smallpox and anthrax, which are considered by officials to be the potentially most dangerous bioterrorism diseases.  Two anthrax vaccines are available in the U.S. stockpile and a smallpox vaccine and treatment for complications should be ready in three to four years, it indicated.

The chart indicated the length of time it takes to develop, test and bring a vaccine into production.  Vaccines for plague, tularemia, botulinum toxin, and multivalent Venezuelan equine encephalitis, and a next generation anthrax vaccine, are in the technology development stage, which could last four to eight years before moving into a system development and demonstration phase prior to production that could take three to four years, it said.

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United States:  Army Finds Buried Bacteria Vials in Waste Dump

Officials have discovered several vials of biological agents buried at the U.S. Army’s former biological weapons research facility at Fort Detrick, Md., the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, May 23).

Fort Detrick officials believed they were removing industrial waste from a former biological weapons research center, but workers have discovered more than 100 vials, some containing Brucella melitensis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Bacillus anthracis, a nonvirulent form of anthrax.

“You find it, contain it, and try to figure out what it is,” said Col. John Ball, Fort Detrick’s garrison commander.  “We’re learning, but it’s expensive,” he added.

Workers are operating in a sealed tent at the excavation site and wear biohazard suits.  Piles of buried debris occasionally explode, and Army officials have equipped bulldozers with blast shields, the Post reported.  Technicians remove large waste from the soil, mash the remaining dirt and waste and then douse it with bleach to kill bacteria.

Hubert Kaempf, an 83-year-old who supervised Fort Detrick’s waste haulers decades ago, defended the facility.

“We had one of the finest safety departments in the world,” he said.  “But what was in keeping with safety and sanitary laws then would now be very much forbidden,” he added (Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post, May 27).

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Anthrax:  U.S. Postal Service to Expand Testing of Anthrax Detection System

The U.S. Postal Service plans next week to expand testing of a new system designed to detect the presence of biological agents, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, April 10).

The biohazard detection system (BDS) has been successfully tested over the past nine months in Baltimore, said Thomas Day, vice president of engineering for the Postal Service.  Beginning June 1, the system will be tested at 14 additional postal facilities throughout the country for 30 days, after which time postal officials will decide whether the system should be deployed at all postal sites, the Post reported.

“In approximately 30 days, we’ll have the results of various test sites and hopefully, this will lead to the validation of the new BDS system, Day said.

The BDS works by testing the air surrounding mail-handling equipment for anthrax particles using a rapid on-site DNA test, Day said.  If a positive match is detected, the network computer will provide immediate notification and an emergency response plan would then be activated (Michael Zimmerman, Washington Post, May 26).

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