Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2006
BIODEFENSE AND PANDEMIC VACCINE AND DRUG DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 26, 2006)
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Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5533, the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2006.
Like the NIH Reform Act that we will be considering later this evening, this legislation is the end product of a cooperative, bipartisan effort to help improve research outputs for the benefit of all Americans should the unspeakable happen here again on American soil.
As my colleagues are no doubt aware, biodefense is an area where the Federal Government must take a strong role because there is no business model that will support the investments we need without a clear path from the Federal Government. However, we also know that the expertise in this area mostly lies with the private sector, so we must make sure that we facilitate a strong working partnership.
Project BioShield was signed into law on July 21, 2004, to help encourage the development of new bioterrorism countermeasures. The legislation provided procedures for bioterrorism-related procurement, hiring and awarding of research grants in an effort to make it easier for United States Department of Health and Human Services to quickly commit substantial funds to countermeasure projects.
This past April, the Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on Project BioShield; and at this hearing our expert witnesses identified a number of barriers to fully realizing Project BioShield's potential. They highlighted the fact that there is no single point of authority within the Department of Health and Human Services for the advanced research and development of medical countermeasures to make important procurement decisions. Additionally, HHS has limited purchasing and contractual flexibility, and this inefficient structure and limited flexibility exacerbates the shortcomings of the status quo.
Drug and vaccine development is unnecessarily lengthy, often taking between 8 and 12 years, and many potential products fail prematurely following basic research due to limited funding for advanced research and development. There simply is not enough motivation for academic researchers, drug and vaccine manufacturers and other possible partners to commit substantial resources to bring new and improved products to the market quickly.
I believe that the legislation before us today helps address the problems raised in our hearing and represents a huge improvement over the status quo.
I would like to commend the chairman of our Energy and Commerce Committee, Chairman Barton of Texas; Congressman MIKE ROGERS of Michigan; and Congresswoman ANNA ESHOO of California for their strong leadership on this legislation that builds on the achievements of the Project BioShield Act and takes further steps to identify and promote medical countermeasures to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies, including potential pandemic infectious diseases.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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