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| | Defense Department has "no interest" in government-owned vaccine facility
Tuesday, Feb 10, 2004 By Alison Vekshin Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department is moving to put to rest notions that it might consider the Pine Bluff Arsenal for a federal laboratory to produce vaccines against chemical and biological agents. A Pentagon official said the Bush administration has "no interest" in the idea, which has been promoted by local officials and Arkansans in Congress. Instead, the military is working with the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases to use the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to produce vaccines for military and public use, Defense spokesman James Turner said Friday in a statement in response to a query. "Although the issue of a 'Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated' vaccine production facility has been discussed for a number of years, and at least four states have expressed interest in such a facility being located in their state, the Department of Defense has no interest in building or operating such a facility," Turner said. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said she intends to continue pushing for a federally run facility at Pine Bluff despite the seeming thumbs down from the Pentagon. "There does need to be a capability through the Department of Defense to be able to produce what's necessary -- vaccinations and other antidotes," Lincoln said. She said private sector companies have indicated vaccine production is not profitable for them. "They are not going to keep a line of production going," she said. Arkansas lawmakers in Congress have lobbied the Pentagon for years to house a vaccine plant at the arsenal as a way to safeguard its future. Without new missions, lawmakers are concerned the installation could be targeted in an upcoming round of base closings. They point to a 1994 Defense Department study that identified the arsenal as a desirable location to house a vaccine production facility. The study was never acted on. The delegation met last March with Anna Johnson-Winegar, then-deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for chemical and biological matters, to promote the arsenal for a vaccine factory. Afterward, Johnson-Winegar said she did not think such a plan would be in the works. "I am disappointed in the Defense Department's decision to stay out of the vaccine production business," Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, said Monday in a statement. It is the government's responsibility to provide vaccines to the nation's military, said Ross, whose district contains the arsenal. "The private sector so far has failed to sufficiently develop vaccines to combat deadly biological weapons, including anthrax," Ross said. "I believe the government must step up to the plate and take control over this critical vaccine development." The decision came as no surprise to Jim Crider, president of the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County. "We suspected this was going to happen for several months," he said. "We have already been working in another direction just in case." Crider said the alliance is recruiting biotechnology companies to establish a private-public partnership with the arsenal, the National Center for Toxicological Research and the Bioplex, a proposed research and technology park. The alliance has targeted 86 biotechnology companies over the last year in an effort to secure the project, which he estimated would cost between $450 million and $480 million. In his fiscal 2005 budget proposal released last week, President Bush requested $2.5 billion for Project BioShield, a program to develop and produce vaccines against biological weapons like anthrax. The amount is almost triple his request of $890 million last year. -- 30 -- |
