CBRN Medical Countermeasures Stockpile Building Programs

In FY 2004, Congress appropriated $5.6 billion to the Project BioShield Special Reserve Fund (SRF) to support the Project BioShield goal of acquiring CBRN medical countermeasures over a 10-year period.  BARDA has used these funds to support major acquisition programs leading to procurement of medical countermeasures against top priority threats.

Since the passage of the Project BioShield legislation in 2004, BARDA has awarded 9 contracts for development and acquisition of CBRN medical countermeasures, and has successfully stockpiled 17 medical countermeasure products against 6 CBRN threats.  Within the CBRN program, we are stockpiling countermeasures against our top-priority threats.

For example, since we now have in the stockpile enough vaccine to vaccinate the entire US population against smallpox, and BARDA has a current procurement contract for an additional vaccine for immunocompromised individuals.  We are pursuing a comprehensive strategy to address the threat of anthrax, and have made a substantial investment in the acquisition of medical countermeasures for the SNS. This comprehensive approach includes acquisition of vaccines, antibiotics, and therapeutics to meet immediate public health needs in the event of an attack. We have 4.4 million courses of anthrax vaccine and an additional 6.3 million on contract, building to our goal of 25 million courses.  Post-exposure antibiotics remain a cornerstone of the response strategy to anthrax. The SNS now contains antibiotic regimens for over 40 million individuals.  The SNS also has antibiotic regimens to treat 200,000 symptomatic patients, and to provide prophylaxis for 57 million people.