Project BioShield: Purposes and Authorities

Abstract

Many potential chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism agents lack available countermeasures. In 2003, President Bush proposed Project BioShield to address this need. The Project BioShield Act became law in July 2004 (P.L. 108-276). This law has three main provisions: (1) relaxing procedures for some CBRN terrorism-related spending, including hiring and awarding research grants; (2) guaranteeing a federal government market for new CBRN medical countermeasures; and (3) permitting emergency use of unapproved countermeasures. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has used each of these authorities. The HHS used expedited review authorities to approve grants relating to developing treatments for radiation exposure and used the authority to guarantee a government market to obligate approximately $2.3 billion to acquire countermeasures against anthrax, botulism, radiation, and smallpox. The HHS has also employed the emergency use authority several times including all" wing young children with H1N1 "swine flu? to receive specific antiviral drugs.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 06, 2009
Accession Number
ADA503195

Entities

People

  • Frank Gottron

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • Homeland Security
  • Medical Countermeasures
  • Medical Personnel
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • Public Health
  • Security
  • United States Government
  • Vaccines
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Infectious Disease/Epidemiology
  • Oncology