Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:30:02.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The American biodefense industry: From emergency to nonemergence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Filippa Lentzos
Filippa Lentzos*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Since 1998, and especially since the “Amerithrax” emergency of 2001, the United States has ambitiously funded biodefense projects, intending not only to enhance detection and management of any biological-weapons attack but also to establish a robust domestic biodefense industry. I asked if the United States had fulfilled this latter intention. Using the RAND Corporation's RaDiUS database, I examined federal biodefense grants and contracts awarded from 1995 through most of 2005, noting recipient type, awarding unit, funding level, and the disease focus of research-and-development support. Patterns in these data as well as other sources suggest that the biodefense industry as late as 2005 remained in a nascent stage, with most firms small, precariously financed, and more responsive to funders' announcements and solicitations than to opportunities for self-directed innovation. A biodefense industry with investor-capital funding and retained earnings, with its own leading companies, with its own stock analysts, and with its own legitimacy in commercial and financial markets did not emerge over the period studied, nor does its emergence appear imminent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 2007 , pp. 15 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Schuler, A., “Billions for Biodefense: Federal Agency Biodefense Funding, FY2001-FY2005,” Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, 2004, 2(2):86–96.Google Scholar
2.Federal funding for Biological Weapons Prevention and Defense, Fiscal Years 2001 to 2007 (Centre for Arms Control and Proliferation, 2006).Google Scholar
3.Presidential Directive “Biodefense for the 21st Century,” 28 April 2004.Google Scholar
4.Remarks by President Bush, BIO 2003 Plenary Luncheon, 23 June 2003.Google Scholar
5.Remarks by Tom Ridge, BIO 2003 Plenary Luncheon, 25 June 2003.Google Scholar
6.Ryan, Una S., testifying on behalf of BIO before the Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations, hearing on biological warfare defense vaccine research & development programs, 23 October 2001.Google Scholar
7.Sudovar, Stephen G., testifying on behalf of BIO before the Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations, hearing on biological warfare defense vaccine research & development programs, 23 October 2001.Google Scholar
8.Ryan, Una S., testifying on behalf of BIO before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, hearing on meeting the bioterrorism threat with cooperation between the federal government and the biotechnology industry, 5 February 2002.Google Scholar
9.Read, J. Leighton, testifying on behalf of BIO before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the House Select Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness and Response, hearing on the Project BioShield Act of 2003, 27 March 2003.Google Scholar
10.BIO written statement to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, hearing on Project BioShield II, 6 Oct 2004.Google Scholar
11.Young, Peter F., testifying on behalf of BIO before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health, hearing on Project BioShield reauthorization issues, 6 April 2006.Google Scholar
12.“Milestones 2004: Biotechnology Industry Organization Annual Report,” www.bio.org, March 2004.Google Scholar
13.BIO Statement on “Biotechnology, Public Health and National Security: How the industry can develop biodefense products,” 24 Oct 2002.Google Scholar
14.Feldbaum, C. B., “Bioterrorism: A Challenge We Cannot Decline to Meet,” commentary piece in The Washington Times, 2 Nov 2001.Google Scholar
15.BIO Press Release, “35 Biotech Companies to Present New Technologies & Products for Homeland Security,” 22 April 2002; conference agenda and presentation abstracts at BIO website, www.bio.org.Google Scholar
16.Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate, S.15 Project BioShield Act of 2003, 7 May 2003, p.5.Google Scholar
17.Fauci, A. S., Testimony on “NIH Implementation of Project BioShield in the Research and Development of Defense Countermeasures” before the Committee on Government Reform, United States House of Representatives, 14 July 2005.Google Scholar
18.Hollis, Richard B., statement to the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology, of the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, hearing on “Bioshield: Linking bioterrorism threats and countermeasure procurement to enhance terrorism preparedness,” 12 July 2005.Google Scholar
19.Wright, David P., statement to the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology, of the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, hearing on “Bioshield: Linking bioterrorism threats and countermeasure procurement to enhance terrorism preparedness,” 12 July 2005.Google Scholar
20.Wysocki, B., “US struggles for drugs to counter biological threats,” The Wall Street Journal, 11 July 2005.Google Scholar
21.Leighton Read, statement on behalf of BIO to the Subcommittee on Health and Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness and Response, of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, hearing on “Furthering public health security: Project Bioshield,” 27 March 2003.Google Scholar
22.“BioPharma vs. Defense Contractor Operating Margins,” appendix to Senator Joseph Lieberman's statement to the Senate Judiciary and Senate HELP Committees hearing on “Creating a BioDefense Industry: BioShield II,” 6 Oct 2004.Google Scholar
23.Senator Joseph Lieberman's statement to the Senate Judiciary and Senate HELP Committees hearing on “Creating a BioDefense Industry: BioShield II,” 6 Oct 2004.Google Scholar
24.“Opportunities and Challenges in Biodefense,” Beyond Borders: Global Biotechnology Report 2005 (Ernst & Young, 2005), p.37.Google Scholar
25.Grotto, A. J. and Tucker, J., Biosecurity: A Comprehensive Action Plan (Centre for American Progress, 2006), p.39.Google Scholar
26.Wysocki, B., “US struggles for drugs to counter biological threats,” The Wall Street Journal, 11 July 2005.Google Scholar