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President Bush Wednesday signed into law legislation creating Project Bioshield, under which the government will provide incentives to the drug industry for research and development of antidotes to various chemical and biological weapons, the Associated Press reported.

The Bioshield bill also speeds up the approval process for new antidotes and allows the government during a crisis to distribute some treatments before seeking Food and Drug Administration approval.

U.S. officials hope that research supported by the $5.6 billion program would yield enough new-generation anthrax vaccine for 25 million people, antidotes for botulism and anthrax, a safer smallpox vaccine and a children's version of an antiradiation pill.

The legislation passed the House on a 414-2 vote on Thursday and the Senate by 99-0 in May.

"Modern terrorist threats come not just from explosions, but also from silent killers such has deadly germs and chemical agents," Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., an author of the bill, said in a statement released Tuesday night. "Project Bioshield creates a lifesaving partnership between our government and the private sector to develop the vaccines needed to project our citizens from this bioterrorism. This bill could save millions of lives."

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