[CPEO-MEF] BIODEFENSE: "Pentagon makes costly foray into biodefense drug business"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Pentagon makes costly foray into biodefense drug business
The initiative defies the advice of experts, duplicates another  
agency's work and shifts money away from gear for troops.

By David Willman
Los Angeles Times
November 23, 2013

WASHINGTON - Despite intense pressure to hold down federal spending,  
the Defense Department is launching a high-priced effort to create  
its own production pipeline for vaccines and biodefense drugs - an  
initiative that defies the advice of government-hired experts and  
duplicates what another agency is doing.

Construction began in late October on a plant in north Florida that  
will produce flu vaccine and specialized medicines for the Pentagon  
to protect military personnel against germ warfare agents.

To begin paying for the initiative, the Obama administration has  
quietly shifted millions of dollars that had been budgeted for better  
masks, boots, early-warning sensors and other equipment for troops at  
risk of exposure to chemical or biological weapons, according to  
government documents and defense specialists.

The Department of Health and Human Services, meanwhile, is on track  
to spend billions of dollars to produce the same types of medicines  
in collaboration with private drug companies and university researchers.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/nation/na-biodefense- 
spending-20131124,0,4270364,full.story

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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