As the President prepares to sign Project BioShield (S. 15), we take the first steps towards creating a new industry in America, the BioDefense Industry. This industry will engage the scientific and entrepreneurial talents of America's preeminent life sciences research and development infrastructure to develop medical countermeasures - including diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines - to protect us in the event of a bioterror, chemical, or radiological attack. This Briefing will explore the following aspects of this new industry:

• What does Project BioShield's enactment mean? How will the government implement Project BioShield to provide incentives for entrepreneurial biopharma firms to develop new diagnostics, anti-virals and antibiotics, vaccines, and related countermeasures and according to what timetable? How will the new BioShield incentives be supplemented by and coordinated with government funding for basic and applied research?
  
  
• What factors will the Department of Homeland Security use to prioritize which medical countermeasures will be selected first for BioShield research and procurement, and how will the Department of Health and Human Services determine which companies have the know-how to be enlisted as the first BioShield contractors? What is the timetable for this research and these procurements and to what extent do this research and these procurements secure the range of medical countermeasures we need to prepare ourselves for a terror attack? How is the bioterror threat evolving? How will the government enlist and fund the design and construction of new bio-containment facilities for the research on these medical countermeasures?
  
  
• How do we determine how well BioShield is working? What needs to be enacted as BioShield II to ensure that we establish a biodefense industry with the sophistication, capital, and commitment to develop the full range of medical countermeasures we need to prepare for this evolving threat?

There are no refunds. Program subject to change.