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2001 NOV 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The government should supervise development and production of vaccines against germs that might be used in bioterror attacks, a congressionally created panel told the Bush administration.
The advisory commission on domestic terrorism concluded that because only a small market exists for the manufacture of vaccines to fight anthrax, smallpox or other diseases terrorists might release, the government should oversee and finance their research and production. Altered vaccines might be needed to combat manipulated strains of existing diseases, the experts concluded.
"We've suggested that the private sector can no longer respond to the requirements of producing vaccines for diseases that may only emerge if they are intentionally perpetrated,'' said Michael Wermuth, a policy analyst at the Rand research group and project director of the panel's report. "The private sector can't see any profit motive in doing this over the long term.''
The government should establish the capability to "very quickly ramp up production'' in the event of a future bioattack using smallpox or anthrax, Wermuth said. The administration is currently working with several private firms to bolster stores of smallpox and anthrax vaccines
The government has in storage 15.4 million doses of smallpox vaccine. Researchers are considering stretching that number by diluting each dose, to get as many as five vaccines per existing dose. Health officials asked Congress for $509 million, part of a larger bioterrorism package, to buy 300 million ...
Source: HighBeam Research, Panel Suggests Federally Supervised Vaccine Labs.(Brief Article)