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February 05, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Bioterrorism Solutions Appear Out of Reach"

Financial Times (www.ft.com) (02/04/03) P. 18; Cookson, Clive; Dyer, Geoff

Researchers are concerned that President Bush's newly announced $6 billion bio-defense program will create new vaccines for potential bioterrorism at the expense of effective research into natural killer diseases, such as HIV, tuberculosis, influenza, and malaria.  The plan is likely to offer funding to the numerous companies working to create bioterrorism vaccinations, but it is unclear if the government will fund new vaccines completely through the development process; researchers are calling for a long-term commitment beyond the typical one-year grants.  Researchers also fear that bypassing FDA review of new bioterrorism vaccines during an emergency could offer mass immunizations of a drug that is ineffective or dangerous.

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