Biotech Could Lead To Deadlier Bioweapons

October 4, 2002
By Steve Mitchell

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Although the biotechnology revolution will lead to new treatments for disease, that same technology could be used by terrorists to produce deadlier biological weapons, a biotech expert said Thursday at a World Medical Association meeting on bioterrorism.

Techniques for working with DNA and manipulating genes aimed at treating or understanding disease could be used to modify organisms such as smallpox and anthrax so they are more virulent or resistant to vaccines and antibiotics, said George Poste, chief executive officer of Health Technology Networks of Gilbertsville, Pa., a consulting firm specializing in the impact of biotechnology on healthcare. The technology is "giving raise to entirely new weapons systems," he said.

Poste also said miniature devices being developed to monitor or treat disease within the body -- such as tiny robots that could patrol blood vessels -- could be used to "maim or kill" people. "This technology will emerge to have sinister importance," he said.

Because such technology is becoming cheaper and more accessible, it will be difficult for intelligence agencies to detect groups or individuals developing devices for nefarious intentions, he said.

D.A. Henderson, principal science adviser to the secretary for the office of public health preparedness, had a similar perspective, noting that biological weapons require only a minimum of equipment and people. This makes it difficult "to know what countries are doing," he said. Because of this and their potential to infect up to hundreds of thousands of people, biological weapons are some of the most feared weapons of mass destruction, he said.

Poste noted biotechnology "will assume an increased importance in national security." This requires scientists and physicians to play a greater role in policy decisions and the debate over how to counter these emerging threats, he told United Press International.

Henderson agreed, saying although physicists with nuclear expertise have played a role in developing national security policies, there are few biologists or physicians involved at this level. "It's important that they play a much larger role," he said.

However, Henderson told UPI federal public health officials do not consider the devious use of emerging biotechnology an urgent threat. "We feel that it is difficult, not easy" to make modifications that result in deadlier biological agents, he said. Any modification to an organism often "has unintended consequences that occur with it" and it is difficult to predict what these might be, he said.

Poste disagreed it would be difficult to modify biological agents to make them deadlier. Manipulating smallpox to evade a vaccine, for example, is "relatively straightforward" and "could be done now," he said.

Even if the threat of new biological weapons is not deemed imminent, it is important to discuss how to handle or prevent this before it becomes commonplace, Poste said. "Closing the barn door after the horse has already left" is futile, he said.

Henderson said the current concern of the government is being prepared to deal with the known threats such as the naturally occurring strains of smallpox and anthrax. At the same time, the National Institutes of Health is conducting the basic research that will entail a better understanding of how the organisms could be manipulated and how to develop effective treatments for modified germs, he said.

On a related note, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday it has awarded more than $22 million to two biotech companies to develop a new anthrax vaccine that is safer and requires less shots than the existing vaccine.

"These awards represent the first step toward our goal of securing an initial 25 million doses of an improved anthrax vaccine for our emergency stockpile," HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a written statement.

Avecia, of Manchester, United Kingdom, and VaxGen Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., will be charged with testing the vaccine in animals and humans and applying for licensure from the Food and Drug Administration.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021003-034955-9368r