Dr. Mercola: Why is the US Doubling Its Pharmaceutical Protection?Protection?

The US government has awarded a $433-million contract to pharmaceutical company Siga Technologies for 1.7 million doses of an experimental smallpox drug called ST-246 (Tecovirimat). In this time of limited resources and heavy budget deficits, the decision to spend nearly half a billion dollars to stockpile a drug of questionable safety and effectiveness, for a strictly theoretical danger, is puzzling, and that is an extreme understatement. Siga's ST-246, which reportedly works by blocking the ability of the smallpox virus to spread to other cells, has been granted "fast-track" status by the US Food and Drug Administration. Under this accelerated approval process, experimental drugs are brought to the market sooner, even though they've only been tested on a small number of people, and their effects and safety risks are nit clearly understood. Unfortunately, there are serious, and sometimes fatal consequences of bringing drugs to market without adequate safety testing, and its unclear why there is an urgent need for this drug that would warrant "fast-track" approval. Even Siga's Web site notes smallpox is "no longer found in the natural environment."