WASHINGTON

The United States is failing to employ the power of its biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries to counter a growing threat from biological terrorism, an expert conference was told last week.

Biological terrorism is becoming more likely as both information and biological agents become more available, said David Siegrist, a research fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, which hosted the conference in Washington, DC.

“There is a crying need for much more to be done,” said Siegrist, who leads a research team studying how to counter biological terrorism. “The US advantage in biotechnology needs to be leveraged, so that it outpaces the threats.”

The United States is not as well prepared to counter the threat as it should be, according to Siegrist's research. A 1996 report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation concludes that, although terrorist incidents in the United States are decreasing in number, they are increasing in destructive power and casualties inflicted. “Over the past ten years a pattern of interest in biological agents by criminals and extremists has developed,” says the report.

Siegrist's team argues that increased funding for biomedical research into advanced countermeasures is needed. The lack of incentives for industry to invest means that government must do more.

A recent official review of US defence policy concluded that protecting Americans from weapons of mass destruction is a top priority, yet recommended that just $1 billion over five years be put into developing tools to counter the impact of domestic attacks by such weapons.

But Stephen Morse, the manager of a new advanced diagnostics programme for pathogens at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, points out that the agency has boosted its funding for countering biological threats to $50-$60 million in the past few years. This is a “significant commitment”, he says.

Technologies being developed by the government include biosensors – tiny devices that can identify biological agents in the body or in the environment. Advocates of increased research point out that there are many potential applications in the civilian sector, from food safety inspections to countering infectious diseases.