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The catastrophic terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent anthrax mailings have sensitized the nation to acts of domestic terror. The confirmation of terrorist interest in weapons of mass destruction and the vulnerability of the United States to such attack have highlighted the potential that these weapons may be used as weapons of  Read More »

Congressional interest in the development of bioterrorism countermeasures remains strong, even after passage of legislation establishing Project BioShield.During the 109th Congress, several bills were introduced (although not enacted),including S. 3, the Protecting America in the War on Terror Act, S. 975, the Project Bioshield II Act, and S. 1873, the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and  Read More »

The Project BioShield Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-276) established a 10-year program to acquire civilian medical countermeasures to chemical, biological,radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents for the Strategic National Stockpile.Provisions of this act were designed to encourage private companies to develop these countermeasures by guaranteeing a government market for successfully developed countermeasures… This report discusses actions  Read More »

Biocontainment technologies are widely used by scientists around the world. Efforts to increase control of U.S. high-containment laboratories may put domestic industry at a competitive disadvantage and inhibit international academic collaboration. Absent international harmonization, the United States can only partially address the threat of a high-containment laboratory being the source of a bioterror weapon….