Thursday, April 6, 2006

Had dinner with Tara O’Toole of the Univ of Pittsburg Biodefense Program. She had just testified at the BioShield Hearing on the Hill and wanted to get my perspective on how things were going with the Biodefense effort and if there was anything that she could do for me. I explained to her that the reason the current BioShield effort was not successful was that the Congress did not approve the Bill that I and VP Cheney and Scooter Libby had originally proposed. The Congress limited the money to $5.6 Billion instead of an unlimited authorization to draw from the Treasury and the Appropriations Committees still controlled how much could be spent each year. Also, we could not do advanced development for products. This put off the big companies (not enough money) and the little companies (advanced development) and so the process has not been entirely successful. We are attracting marginal companies like VaxGen that cannot get to the goal post.