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February 14, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Responding to Bioterror Threat"

Boston Globe (www.boston.com/globe) (02/14/03) P. E1; Kowalczyk, Liz

As part of a wide-ranging effort by the national medical community to capture federal funds to fight bioterrorism, the Harvard teaching hospitals and New England's medical schools have requested $4 million to $6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to open a regional biodefense research and teaching center.  Proposals from academic medical centers and schools are flowing in to NIH, whose 2003 biodefense budget could double in 2004 to $1.6 billion.  Says Dr. Alan Ezekowitz chief of pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, incentives work no differently in the research community than they do in any other type of business--they motivate people to steer their talent and innovativeness toward the problem.  However, this shift raises concerns about whether biodefense research is overtaking or causing other crucial medical research projects to be neglected.  The Harvard group submitted its proposal last month for a regional laboratory to be located in Boston's Longwood Medical and Academic area that would support individual research and development projects for vaccines and treatments against biological agents, afford lab expansion, and support researchers who want to redirect their focus from traditional medicine to biodefense.  Boston University Medical Center has requested as much as $1.6 billion to build and operate a Level 4 laboratory, the highest level of advancement and security in the U.S. scientific community, where researchers could work to find treatments and vaccines against smallpox, plague, anthrax and other potentially lethal agents.

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