BIOTECHNOLOGY'S CAPITAL SPIN: Industry conference puts biotech in a national policy framework

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH opened the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual conference last week with a call to action for the biotechnology industry on issues ranging from terrorism to Medicare reform to hunger in Africa. Making the most of a hometown setting in Washington, D.C., for its 10th annual conference, BIO also booked FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge as speakers. Both officials emphasized the connection between science and public policy, and both pledged to increase government support for the sector. "The biotechnology industry finds itself on the front lines of some of the great challenges of our time," Bush said. "The first challenge is the need to fight terror." The President encouraged biotechnology companies to support Project Bioshield, a program now before Congress that would provide $6 billion over the next 10 years to speed research on and production of vaccines and treatments for smallpox, anthrax, Ebola plague, and other ...