HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has released for display in the Federal Register the Department's new roadmap for developing and purchasing medical countermeasures against a host of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats.
The "Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE) Implementation Plan for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Threats" lays out the future course for prioritizing HHS' acquisition of vaccines, drugs and medical diagnostic tests, including purchases made under Project BioShield. The plan will be published in the Federal Register Friday, April 20 and be posted online at http://www.hhs.gov/aspr/ophemc.
"Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, our mission has been to protect Americans by securing medical countermeasures for a range of threats. We have made significant progress to increase our preparedness in this area, but there is much more we must do," Secretary Leavitt said. "This plan lays out our path forward in the coming years and will take advantage of our new authorities under the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act to move forward with Project BioShield."
The PHEMCE plan assesses the current state of medical countermeasure preparedness, and identifies the highest priority research, development and acquisition programs to increase public health emergency preparedness. The plan further identifies the proposed acquisitions HHS plans to make under Project BioShield during the remaining five years of the program as well as priority medical countermeasure programs that will be pursued up through Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.
In addition, the plan emphasizes the importance of using the new authorities provided for Project BioShield under the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act to support the research, development, acquisition, and availability of safe and effective medical countermeasures to protect the United States from CBRN threats. Appropriate advanced development funding will also be critical to the future success of these activities.