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REMARKS BY:

TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

PLACE:

HHS Auditorium, Washington, D.C.

DATE:

March 4, 2004

Biosecurity Press Conference

Good afternoon. You all know our commitment to ensuring the safety and security of all Americans. We've advanced security by making bioterrorism research a priority. We've advanced security by improving food inspections. And today, we will advance security by reducing the risk that government funded research could end up helping terrorists.

Joining me on stage are:

  • Dr. John Marburger
  • General John Gordon
  • Dr. Elias Zerhouni
  • Dr. Tony Fauci

And I would like to thank Dr. Gerald Fink, Dr. Ronald Atlas, and their committee for their hard work and important contribution to biosecurity policy development. They have done a service for America.

Private investors spend well over $30 billion a year on health research, and taxpayers spend more than $30 billion on top of that.

Thanks in part to that tremendous investment, our nation is a world leader in life sciences research. The advances in medicine that our researchers make save countless lives and improve the quality of life for all of us. Unfortunately, the power to heal can be the power to destroy. The very tools developed to better the health and condition of mankind can also be used to harm it. Developing tools with this double potential is called dual use research.

For example, genetic manipulations of organisms that could result in:

  • New pathogens
  • Increased pathogenicity
  • Resistance to antibiotics
  • Altered host range of a pathogen
  • Increased transmissibility of an infectious agent
  • Invisibility to diagnosis or detection

Dual use research could also include:

  • Studies that yield information about how to increase the lethality of a toxin
  • Manipulations of threat agents that might impair vaccine effectiveness
  • Ways to enable the weaponization of a biological agent or toxin

For the health and security of America, we must improve biosecurity measures for dual use research. We must also protect the open process of scientific discovery that has been so critical to our successful research. Because we continue to be fully committed to the free flow of scientific inquiry.

So I am very pleased to announce the creation of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. This new board will advise all federal departments and agencies that conduct or support dual use life sciences research.

The board will consist of up to 25 voting members. It will also have a number of nonvoting ex officio members from at least 15 relevant federal departments and agencies.

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, or the N.S.A.B.B., will advise me, Elias, and the heads of all federal departments and agencies that conduct or support life sciences research. The board will recommend specific strategies for the efficient and effective oversight of dual use biological research. This involves strategies for fostering continued rapid progress in food research, agricultural research, and public health research, which include new diagnostics, treatments, vaccines and other prophylactic measures, and detection methods.

The NSABB will:

Advise on strategies for local and federal biosecurity oversight for all federally conducted or supported life sciences research.

It will also suggest guidelines for biosecurity oversight.

It will work with journal editors to develop guidelines for the public presentation of potentially sensitive life sciences research.

It will propose guidelines for training programs for federally funded laboratories.

And it will propose a code of conduct to government and private organizations engaged in life sciences research.

I am confident that this new Board will help keep America safe and secure.

I would like to invite Dr. Marburger to say a few words. Jack?

Last Revised: March 5, 2004

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