In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002, Congress directed the Secretary of Defense to contract with the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council (NRC) for a study of the review and approval process for new medical countermeasures in order to identify new approaches to accelerate that process and to identify methods for assuring that new countermeasures will be safe and effective.

The Committee on Accelerating the Research, Development, and Acquisition of Medical Countermeasures Against Biological Warfare agents has released this interim report that provides information on study progress, but does not contain findings and recommendations. 

The committee's final report was issued January 22, 2004.