12.02.2005

Secretive vaccine development?

When they proposed shielding manufacturers from liability without addressing the other issues involved in the reluctance of pharma companies to develop vaccines--such as low profit margins and unlicensed production of vaccine in other countries--I thought they were going a bit too far into the ideological rather than the practical. Now, I guess they're going to try to address the third issue by building secret vaccine production facilities:
"The proposed Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency, or BARDA, would be exempt from long-standing open records and meetings laws that apply to most government departments, according to Legislation approved Oct. 18 by the Senate health committee."
Hmmh, might be necessary, but it's certainly frightening to think that these entities can use our money to operate without public oversight and still be shielded from one of the few available tools our society has to protect the public: the lawsuit [hate to admit it, but without stringent regulation that's all we've got].