The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded a $24.9 million contact to a Virginia-based firm for support of federal efforts to monitor entities that conduct biological agent operations, the Washington Business Journal reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 30).
SRA International received a five-year extension of work it has been doing since 2002. Its operations will include reviewing requests for relocation of anthrax, ricin and other materials on the CDC list of select agents and assessing the adequacy of biosecurity systems at sites that hold, use or ship those substances.
"Our laboratory inspectors have conducted more than 1,000 on-site inspections over the past five years, and we look forward to continuing to help CDC manage this critical emergency preparedness program," said SRA public health informatics chief Wayne Myers in a press release (Tierney Plumb, Washington Business Journal, Nov. 18).