Washington Editor

WASHINGTON - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson found himself answering questions about homeland security Thursday in a House committee meeting called to discuss the president's 2004 budget.

Asked by Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to describe in "general terms" the nature of the threat against the U.S. by terrorist forces, Thompson said, "Americans should heed the warnings, but continue to conduct business of their daily lives."

He said while the government is prepared to respond to a biological or chemical attack, future funding is necessary to support research and procurement programs as proposed in President Bush's Project BioShield.

Under the Department of Homeland Security, the president proposes spending $6 billion over 10 years to fund the project, which gives federal health officials the authority to stockpile treatments against biological weapons without congressional approval.

"A guaranteed funding source must be available to enable the government to purchase vaccines and other therapies as soon as experts believe they can be safe and effective, and spur the industry investment needed to produce them," Thompson told the committee.

From the industry standpoint, Matthew Lyons, director of government relations at the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization, told BioWorld Today the project is encouraging, despite a few unanswered questions.

"I think the companies see an opportunity to do some public good here, but at the same time - this is business," he said. "[Project BioShield] could create incentives for the private venture capital market to invest in companies because there will be a secure procurement channel through the Department of Defense or Homeland Security. But the downside is, outside this procurement, there's not really a consumer market."

Furthermore, he said, there's a question of long-term commitment. "Most therapeutics or pharmaceuticals, particularly biologics, have a shelf-life. So is there going to be a procurement commitment over time?"

Meanwhile, the proposal would give the FDA new authority to push emergency treatments through the approval process more quickly, and it would allow the National Institutes of Health to help speed research and development through added funding ($890 million the first year.)

In its own budget, the Department of Health and Human Services would spend roughly $3.6 billion on bioterrorism to expand medical research and maintain state and local preparedness, including a program designed to protect food.

Despite promises of funding research programs - at least in the bioterrorism realm - Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) argued that the budget doesn't do enough for the NIH.

She said the public will be upset when it learns of the "paltry increase" Bush is trying to slip by on the NIH budget. "A 2 percent increase will disrupt the progress we have made in research," she said.

With a hint of annoyance, Thompson responded to DeGette's criticism by saying the overall proposed HHS budget is $539 billion, an amount that represents a $37 billion increase (or 7.3 percent) over the fiscal year 2003 budget.

Regarding comments that Bush is trying to cheat the NIH, Thompson said, "We are completing a five-year doubling of the NIH budget."

The proposed amount for the NIH is $27.9 billion, a net increase of $550 million over last year.

"As a result of one-time projects being funded in fiscal year 2003, and not needing to be refinanced, the actual NIH research will increase by $1.9 billion, or 7.5 percent, and will fund a record number of new and competing research grants," he said.

Bush made a commitment in March 2001 to double the NIH fiscal year 1998 appropriation level in five years. Last year the budget was about $27.3 billion, a 16.7 percent increase over fiscal year 2002. (See BioWorld Today, March 1, 2001 and Feb. 6, 2002.)