07:55 AM EDT on Thursday, August 11, 2005

Associated Press

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the subcommittee on bioterrorism and public health preparedness, said Wednesday he is working on a bill to redesign an effort to protect the nation against a bioterrorist attack.

Legislation establishing the effort, known as Project BioShield, passed in 2004. Burr, R-N.C., hopes the subcommittee will be ready to send forward a revamped version by the end of September.

Burr, R-N.C., made the comments after a visit with employees of Syngenta Crop Protection.

He did not say what the bill would include, but he noted that the government needs to make the development of countermeasures to anthrax and smallpox financially attractive to drug companies.

"When you put an anthrax drug up against a cholesterol drug ... companies are probably going to go with the cholesterol drug," he said.

Burr said one possible solution would be to offer patent extensions that would prolong the time a drug maker can prevent generic versions from hitting the market.

Burr spoke to employees of the agricultural research and technology company mostly about health care, which he considers to be the nation's top domestic issue. He said an overhaul of Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance is needed to reduce health care costs.

Burr also said the United States should wait until Iraq is ready to handle its own security concerns before pulling out troops

"Until we feel confident the Iraqis can provide the level of security they need, we need to maintain our presence," he said.