ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the changing political rationalities that emerged surrounding the governance of biological threats in the US and that would give rise to the largest civilian biodefence apparatus seen to date. The response to the contingent nature of biological threats shaped a political rationality of preparedness that would emphasise the development and stockpiling of medical countermeasures to respond to an attack post-event. This preparedness approach would be developed following the failures in the 1970s of a prevention-based approach that emphasised pre-event vaccination and led to serious side effects. It would be further developed in the ‘dual purpose’ argument in the 1990s and implemented following the attacks of September 11 and the anthrax letters that followed soon after. The Project BioShield Act would be passed in 2004 and BARDA would be created in 2006 to support private companies in medical countermeasure development. This chapter details the obstacles that were overcome in creation of the financial, technical and contractual support mechanisms and incentives that were developed. Such mechanisms make it possible for private companies to harness the biological sciences in the successful translation of molecular knowledge into new pharmaceutical defences.
