Recent News

By Region: North America

$400 million to boost bioterror vaccine manufacturing

(FiercePharma Manufacturing) Three companies, one Swiss, one British and one U.S., will share $400 million to boost vaccine manufacturing capacity in the U.S. that the government can draft in the case of a pandemic or bioterror threats. Emergent BioSolutions ($EBS), GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and Novartis ($NVS) are the recipients of the first phase of the buildup Read More »

June 20, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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DHS Threat Analysis of Biodefense Lab Better, But Problems Remain: Report

(Global Security Newswire) The U.S. Homeland Security Department’s latest analysis of the potential threat posed by a planned biodefense laboratory in Kansas is a “substantial improvement” from a 2010 assessment, but still does not sufficiently describe the potential dangers related to the site, according to an independent expert report issued on Friday. The National Bio Read More »

June 19, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, Biosafety, and Policy & Initiatives
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David Hoffman: Why did they do it?

(Foreign Policy) Looking back, one of the most unsettling phenomenon of the Cold War was the extent to which the superpowers, locked in existential confrontation, failed to see each other clearly. From the bomber and missile “gaps” of the 1950s to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the so-called “window of vulnerability” of the late Read More »

June 19, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, Biological Weapons, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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DIY biology

(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) In the nineteenth century, research in the natural and life sciences was largely self-supported. Charles Darwin had the good fortune of being born into a wealthy family, enabling him to pursue his passions as a gentleman naturalist and to develop the trailblazing theory of evolution. Darwin’s good fortune ended up Read More »

June 19, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Anthrax alert system at risk as cost estimate hits $5.7 billion

(Washington Post) Funding for BioWatch, an early warning system to detect deadly pathogens in 30 U.S. cities, may be in jeopardy after cost estimates surged to $5.7 billion, six times the initial assessment. The Department of Homeland Security wants to open bidding before October on the next phase of the program, which monitors the air Read More »