The Bush administration is hoping that its promise of a guaranteed buyer will entice pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop vaccines and treatments to counter bioterrorism threats, officials said yesterday.

The multibillion-dollar proposal announced in President Bush's State of the Union address represents an unprecedented effort to rapidly expand the nation's medical arsenal against deadly agents such as smallpox and anthrax. The proposal has been named "Project BioShield."

Now I'm not saying being protected is a bad idea. But how do you guarentee the need for these vaccines and why would you want to? Just give them the damn money for the research if that's the problem.

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