TweetA senior Army officer attempted to justify a plan to place missiles on London apartment rooftops during the Olympics on Friday by warning of possible terrorist plans to use unmanned drones carrying deadly poison. Lieutenant Colonel Brian Fahy made the … Read More

TweetA bioterrorism simulation scheduled for Sunday will take place in the Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, area to determine how quickly the United States Postal Service can respond to an anthrax attack. Operation Medicine Delivery is the first dry run … Read More

TweetAnthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recommended this week that researchers take part in an extended moratorium on dual-use research like the recent H5N1 transmissibility studies. A voluntary 60 day moratorium on H5N1 … Read More

TweetDr. Alexander Garza, the assistant secretary of health affairs and chief medical officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, testified last week before the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications about federal guidelines for first responders in … Read More

TweetPharmAthene, Inc., has secured $7.5 million in senior secured credit facilities from GE Capital’s Healthcare Financial Services. The credit facilities consist of a $2.5 million term loan and a revolving line of credit of up to $5 million. “We are … Read More

TweetA Lebanese-born man who was convicted of 11 counts of attempted murder for sending poisoned water and letter bombs to multiple targets has been labeled a dangerous offender in Canada, receiving an indefinite prison term. Arnaout was an aspiring actor. … Read More

TweetThirteen people in Peru have contracted anthrax after people in the area handled a diseased animal. The infection occurred in the Otuzco province of the La Libertad region of Peru. The confirmation of cutaneous anthrax infection, which occurs when anthrax … Read More

TweetDespite an announcement last week that the construction of a medical countermeasure facility was put on hold at Fort Detrick, other facilities, including a biosafety level 4 laboratory, will continue to move forward as planned. The Medical Countermeasure Test and … Read More

TweetAccording to the Rhode Island Health Department, preliminary tests on a suspicious white powder that led to the closure of Greenbush Elementary in West Warwick, R.I., exhibited no bioterror agents. A spokeswoman for the health department said that the powder … Read More

TweetA new concern rising in the wake of the controversial H5N1 bird flu virus studies is amateur scientists in the do-it-yourself biology movement recreating a mutated virus and raising the risk of accidental release. Months of intense worldwide debate led … Read More

TweetThe U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revised an assessment of the proposed high-level animal biosafety lab in Kansas, dramatically lowering the assessed likelihood that Foot and Mouth Disease would escape. In a 923 page risk assessment released on Friday, … Read More

TweetBavarian Nordic A/S, a vaccine-focused biotechnology company, announced on Thursday that it has submitted a marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency for IMVAMUNER, its third-generation smallpox vaccine. The smallpox vaccine, which will be marketed under the trade name … Read More

TweetAccording to experts in synthetic biology, $20 million to $30 million in government research is needed over the next decade to identify and assess potential ecological risks of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology is an emerging research area focused on creating … Read More

TweetA budget cut in congressional funding for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be signaling financial trouble for the public health agency, including a reduction in funding for countermeasures against bioterrorism. While President Barack Obama’s proposal to … Read More

Hillary Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, warned an international meeting in Geneva of the dangers new gene assembly technology could offer, such as terrorist use for biological weapons. Read More

Makoto Hirata, one of three remaining fugitive members of a religious cult in Japan, has surrendered himself to police after 16 years on the run following the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo. Read More

Initial development is set to begin on a next-generation anthrax vaccine development program between Soligenix, Inc., and Harvard University. Read More

Saudi Arabian prince Turki bin Faisal has called for his country to acquire WMDs, including biological weapons, to ensure that the nuclear ambitions of Iran and Israel do not threaten Saudi Arabia’s security. Read More

On Tuesday, the House unanimously passed U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) bipartisan bill to protect the U.S. against pandemics and attacks from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. Read More

LSU’s National Center for Biomedical Research and Training held its Annual Instructor Meeting in Baton Rouge on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4, featuring Dr. Robert Kadlec as its keynote speaker. Read More

Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the executive committee of Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council, reported on Sunday that chemical weapons were spotted in Tripoli. Read More

Experts gathered on Friday at BARDA Industry Day in Boston to examine the United States’ ability to prepare for and treat an anthrax bioterror attack. Read More

The Bio-Response Report Card recently released by the WMD Center, an end-to-end assessment of the government’s capability to respond to a biological attack, highlighted successes in the nation’s countermeasures stockpile. Read More

The Center for American Progress hosted an event on Thursday to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the anthrax attacks. Read More

The Bipartisan WMD Terrorist Research Center released the Bio-Response Report Card on Wednesday stating that the U.S. is unprepared to respond to a large-scale biological attack. Read More

Numerous legislators from the NATO Alliance have called for allied governments to increase their efforts to stop the threat of biological and chemical weapons, saying that a growing danger exists that terrorists may acquire and use such weapons to devasta Read More

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) applauded the recent announcement that the U.S. government would buy 44.75 million doses of anthrax vaccine BioThrax from Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., to add to the nation’s stockpile. Read More

As part of a statewide series of stops around the state of Michigan, Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) toured Emergent BioSolutions’ manufacturing facility in Lansing, Mich., today. Read More

An Alabama man has pleaded guilty to 23 counts of mailing hoax anthrax letters to people in the state. Read More

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the United States Department of Health and Human Services has announced that a protest filed over its contract for the purchase of a smallpox antiviral has been withdrawn. Read More