[Research and development policy on bioterrorism medical countermeasures in the United States]

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) plays a key role in biodefense, which accounts for almost 80% of the U.S. civilian biodefense budget, which itself has amount to over 500 billion yen a year since the 2001 anthrax mailings and has involved programs based on the HSPD-10 "Biodefense for the 21st Century". To promote R&D on medical countermeasures, the DHHS has invested in basic research and ensuring market, and closely communicated with stakeholders to overcome R&D bottlenecks, fulfill pipelines and increase the number of players in the market. Japan must consider infectious disease research as part of national security and implement ways to make basic research pay off in the form of products. Japan must also design ways to develop and deploy medical countermeasures against terrorism by bringing government agencies and private developers closer together and collaborating internationally in the fields of biological agents and others involving nuclear, radiological, and chemical disasters.