The first BioShield bill, signed into law by President Bush in 2004, set up advance purchase commitments for the procurement of medical countermeasures for the National Strategic Stockpile from a fund of $5.6 billion. The Lieberman legislation seeks to strengthen U.S. preparedness by accelerating the research, development and manufacture of novel countermeasure agents, but also addresses a myriad of other preparedness and response issues.
Hopmeier, one of the contributors to the new bill, pointed out that it "goes way beyond the research and procurement challenges, and addresses the critical challenge of establishing a public health infrastructure and a system to provide it."
Of the bill's three major sections, one - focusing on industry concerns such as patent protection and tax breaks for pharmaceutical companies - has received the most media attention.
A second section addresses public health issues - "How do you analyze and determine how to put together a public health system and put in place a structure to set priorities and goals and to set policies for public health," he said.
The third area focused on restructuring the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to "make them more responsive to medical emergencies and disasters," Hopmeier added.
Hopmeier is the President of Unconventional Concepts Inc., a Mary Esther, Fla.-based engineering and scientific consulting firm providing research, organization, and technology integration services to a wide variety of clients. He is a technical adviser and operational consultant to numerous governmental agencies, including DARPA, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, NASA and the U.S. Army National Protection Center. UCI project areas include chemical/biological incident response, combat-casualty care and medical support, crisis response and management, unconventional pathogen countermeasure programs, and integrated federal/civilian disaster response.