ARTICLE

August 2004

Pentagon Chem-Bio Defense Program Is Due for Sweeping Reform

by Joe Pappalardo

The Pentagon’s chemical and biological defense programs need major changes in the way they field technology, cooperate with other government agencies and support the private sector, according to a senior official.

“We are looking for new ways to do things,” said Klaus Schafer, the acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for chemical biological defense.

The Defense Department should do a better job sharing its expertise with the medical community, to help deter and respond to biological and chemical attacks, Schafer told a National Defense Industrial Association conference.

The procurement process also needs reform, so products can move faster out of the laboratories and into the market. “It can take three years to get dollars behind a good idea,” he said. “It should take six months.”

An area of concern among biotech firms was the fear that the Defense Department will usurp intellectual property rights, he said. Changing that perception will be key to building relationships with the private sector, he said, despite the fact that medical and biotech companies often seek higher profit margins than other contractors.

Schafer also is dealing with personnel problems. While both the Pentagon and the private sector typically have competed for the same pool of talent, other federal agencies now too are hiring away Defense Department employees, he complained.

Schafer said chemical-biological defense programs have been “under-funded for years” and described the infrastructure as “tired.” He called for a substantial, but unspecified, budget increase. “These days it takes a half billion dollars to get a vaccine to the market. We couldn’t get there in 50 years.”

One way to get products faster is to team with other government agencies. For example, he said, Phase I trials of new biotech products could be developed by the Defense Department and handed off to the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Health and Human Services for further development and field testing. That requires memoranda of understanding between often competitive agencies. “We’re going to put some agreements in place,” Schafer asserted.

Schafer oversees and coordinates the chemical/biological defense, counter-proliferation support, chemical demilitarization and Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) programs. As such, he is the point man for interagency and international groups on these issues. He told the conference he wants the position to become permanent.

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