This report analyzes the risk of major economic disruptions due to emerging infectious diseases, highlighted by the recent SARS epidemic. The report calls on governments and global companies to shift biosecurity strategies to focus more on addressing the root causes of these diseases. Among the findings is that SARS is the costliest in a series of infectious disease outbreaks in human and animal populations that have caused over $100 billion (not including HIV/AIDS) in damages to economies around the world over the past decade. Transcipt and audio for follow-on teleconference SARS, Biological Systems and the New Economics of Biosecurity: What are the implications for Corporate Strategies also available.

Key questions to be answered:

• What are the lessons to be learned from the SARS epidemic?
  
  
• What are the driving forces and interrelations behind emerging infectious diseases?
  
  
• What are the strategic and institutional responses of multinational companies to biosecurity problems?
  
  
• Where are the "borders" at which exclusionary defenses to emerging infectious diseases are likely to be employed?
  
  
• How large was the economic impact of each of the major emerging infectious disease outbreaks in the past decade?
  
  
• What is the potential for related biological phenomena to affect the global economy, including the evolution of resistance to antibiotics, herbicides, and pesticides, and invasive species and bioterrorism?
  
  
• What new rapidly advancing technologies, systems and tools are being employed to monitor and understand biological systems?

Who will benefit from this research?

• Biotechnology and health care executives
  
  
• Global economists and mulitinational corporation strategists
  
  
• Biosecurity professionals
  
  
• Risk management and insurance professionals
  
  
• Stakeholders in the food supply chain
  
  
• Federal, state and international agencies involved in homeland security, biotechnology and human and animal health

Contents:

INTRODUCTION	3
LEARNING FROM SARS	3
BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY	12
THE REVOLUTION IN BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES	17
REDEFINING BIOSECURITY	17
IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS	21

Excerpt from the Executive Summary

The risks of humanitarian, economic, and environmental disruptions due to emerging infectious diseases, invasive species, and bioterrorism are increasing in conjunction with intensifying human-induced changes in biological systems worldwide. When governments are forced to invoke broad travel restrictions or trade limitations at political borders to control disease or other threats, the costs can be extremely high, as the recent SARS outbreak illustrates. SARS is the costliest in a series of emerging infectious disease (EID) outbreaks in human and livestock populations that have caused over $100 billion in damages to economies around the world over the past decade.

Governments may limit, but cannot fully control or prevent these emerging biosecurity threats. Non-government stakeholders and networks will play dominant roles in developing effective strategies to mitigate and respond to these new challenges. Already leading companies across a wide variety of industries are taking steps to...

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