BioShield Is Slow to Build U.S. Defenses Against Bioweapons.

The article reports that developing vaccines against potential bioweapons such as smallpox and Marburg virus is a tough ask for small biotech companies. In 2004, the U.S. government started the BioShield project to encourage companies to conduct more research on the subject. AlphaVax Inc., a North Carolina biotech company, has already received $26 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore how it can produce vaccines against various biothreats. Drug development is a tough ask and developing biodefense measures is even more difficult. The 10-year Project BioShield is meant to build on the $ 1.7-billion-a-year investment in basic biodefense research by NIH'S National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Biotech companies often struggle to attract the investor funding that is needed to get a product ready for the BioShield program.