Biological threat
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a study regarding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) program consolidation proposal.
The GAO report found that DHS’s documentation related to... Read More »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently released plans to hold a contest to develop new, innovative laboratory diagnostic tools that detect antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The contest, called the Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge, will award prizes totaling $20 million over... Read More »
The U.S. government has become “somewhat complacent” in preparing for potential bioterrorist attacks and needs to implement a national biodefense strategy, Daniel Gerstein, a senior policy researcher at the nonpartisan RAND Corporation, recently told Homeland Preparedness News.
The anthrax... Read More »
Legislation that would require the United States to develop a national biodefense strategy to help prevent and respond to a bioterrorist attack or public health emergency is awaiting Senate floor action.
The Biodefense Strategy Act of 2016, S. 2967, would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released a study on Tuesday with evidence showing that people who were infected with the Ebola virus were 20 percent more likely to survive the virus if they were co-infected with the... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.’s supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for the manufacture of BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) at the company’s large-scale Building 55 manufacturing facility in Lansing,... Read More »
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exercised a contract option with Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., on Tuesday valued at $11.6 million over a 12-month period for the supply of vaccinia immune globulin (VIGIV) to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
The U.S. Food and... Read More »
ClinicalRM recently expanded access protocol with ZMapp, an investigational treatment for Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Africa and the United States.
ZMapp combines three monoclonal antibodies developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc., and LeafBio, the commercialization arm of Mapp, to fight... Read More »
SIGA Technologies, Inc., received approval on Tuesday from its data safety monitoring board (DSMB) to complete enrollment in the second and final cohort of healthy subjects for the Phase III clinical study of TPOXX for the treatment of orthopoxvirus infections.
The approval was based on a study... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) renewed his push on Thursday to reintroduce legislation that would provide additional protections from the Zika virus to U.S. military men and women, including those serving in high-risk areas.
“At the start of June, I introduced an amendment to the 2017 National... Read More »
A major gap in international standards for biosafety in laboratories handling contagious pathogens potentially increases the risk that an accident could result in a disease outbreak that threatens global security, according to a recent study by the UPMC Center for Health Security.
The year-long... Read More »
A team of researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently developed a flexible material that is both highly breathable and protective from various biological agents that soldiers may come into contact with.
The material is the first key component of a new type of... Read More »
Altimmune, Inc., and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) are set to advance the first clinical trial later this month of an anthrax vaccine that could be administered in a single dose.
The trial was initiated from a two-year, $14 million contract between BARDA and... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Wellcome Trust of London, the AMR Centre of Alderley Park and Boston University released plans on Thursday to create one of the world’s largest public-private partnerships centered on the preclinical discovery and development of new... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Wednesday urged President Obama to use unspent funds from other programs to combat the emerging threat of Zika virus in the United States.
Rubio sent a letter to the president, citing specific examples of unused funds that could be reallocated in an expedited... Read More »
