Three towns competing to be site of vaccine production facility.(Brief Article)

2002 MAR 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Jefferson County, Arkansas, government and civic leaders hope what's already here will persuade federal officials to put a planned vaccine production lab in the Pine Bluff area, bringing 300 to 500 new jobs.

But Pine Bluff is competing against two other potential sites - San Antonio, Texas, and Aberdeen, Maryland - for the facility to make vaccines that would guard against a variety of bioterrorist threats.

The first government-owned vaccine production facility would be key in the U.S. military's effort to immunize soldiers who could be exposed to bioterrorist attacks, congressional sources said.

It also would be a major element of homeland security efforts, producing improved vaccines for anthrax and smallpox, and addressing what the Pentagon considers to be leading disease threats - plague, tularemia, botulinum and next-generation anthrax.

The Pine Bluff area is already home to the Pine Bluff Arsenal and a $660 million Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility under construction at the arsenal, as well as the Clara Barton Emergency Preparedness Center and the National Center for Toxicological Research near the Jefferson community in northern Jefferson County.

That combination of weapons, defense and research facilities puts the community in a strong position to win the laboratory, Pine Bluff's proponents said.

"We have planned for this for years since the Desert Storm years," said Col. Mark R. Henscheid, commander of the Pine Bluff Arsenal. "We are poised to provide the infrastructure and security for the facility."