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Federal agencies, Congress and the White House must jointly foster improved research and development for pandemic preparedness and response, experts said during a recent webinar hosted by the Capitol Hill Steering Committee on Pandemic Preparedness & Health Security.
“Over the last two... Read More »
Data from the latest global survey on implementation of the Global Action Plan on addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) showed that more countries than ever are determined to fight AMR, but also major setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the 163 countries that responded to the survey... Read More »
Legislation from U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan (D-MA) and David B. McKinley (R-WV) will be considered in an upcoming hearing hosted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, the legislators said Monday.
The Bolstering Infectious Outbreaks (BIO) Preparedness Workforce Act... Read More »
The Biden-Harris administration has reprioritized global health security at the top of America’s national security agenda in efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic and bolster health systems worldwide by improving preparation, prevention, detection, and response to the next public health... Read More »
U.S. Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) has introduced a bill he said seeks to protect from foreign threats biomedical research conducted or funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH).
The Securing and Fortifying Everyday Biomedical Research Act (SAFE Biomedical Research Act - H.R. 5626) would ensure... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 397-22 to approve a bipartisan bill that aims to reform how the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is administered and managed. The legislation now heads to the U.S. Senate for consideration.
The Strengthening America’s Strategic National... Read More »
The all-star team of government officials, scientists and industry executives who tackled COVID-19 made great strides in the development of an effective vaccine against the novel virus, but that is no guarantee that the United States will be ready for the next pandemic that rears its head, speakers... Read More »
The first participant in a new trial phase recently received a dose of a vaccine candidate against chikungunya disease that is being developed by Emergent BioSolutions Inc.
“Emergent has achieved a major milestone as we begin our phase 3 study for our single-dose chikungunya vaccine... Read More »
Shortly after the terrorist events of Sept. 11, 2001, letters containing deadly anthrax spores arrived at locations across the country, killing five Americans and sickening 17 others. Twenty years after these incidents, considered the worst biological attacks in U.S. history, the federal government... Read More »
According to the latest annual report from the global nonprofit partnership CARB-X, at the close of its fifth fiscal year it has provided as much as $361 million to 92 projects seeking solutions to antibiotic resistant bacteria, gathered new partners under its umbrella and continually grown its... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the first vaccine to treat malaria in children, a mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 260,000 children under the age of five annually in sub-Saharan Africa, in what public health officials have called a historic development.
“The... Read More »
In a new report issued this week, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense warned that the United States needs to protect infrastructure, share and secure information, and maintain public works and services, or risk further devastation from biological threats like COVID-19.
The report was titled... Read More »
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) awarded an agreement worth approximately $22 million to the biopharmaceutical developer Dynavax Technologies Corporation this week, giving it two and a half years to develop an adjuvanted recombinant plague vaccine.
That vaccine will be adjuvanted with... Read More »
A bill introduced last week by U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the Biological Weapons Policy Act (S. 2912), seeks to quash further bioweapons development through greater scrutiny of U.S. research collaborations, greater State Department oversight and use of United Nations tools.
Specifically, the bill... Read More »
An ages-old issue may be on the road to modern solutions, thanks to a new collaboration between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Clarivate that will use advanced computer methods to find therapeutics for use on chlorine and sulfur mustard-caused... Read More »
With a pair of new bills this week, United States Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) sought to improve the federal government’s capabilities to investigate the origins of diseases and respond accordingly, as well as to guarantee analysis and action from its intelligence community.
“Knowledge is power... Read More »
The fourth implementation phase of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’s (BARDA) Transatlantic Taskforce for Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR) began this week, opening a new round of efforts to mobilize investment to fight growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
To... Read More »
Through a contract with SIGA Technologies, Inc., the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has exercised a procurement option to obtain approximately $112.5 million worth of the oral TPOXX smallpox treatment this year.
TPOXX is an orally administered and IV formulation... Read More »
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that her state would open up a $40 million Biodefense Commercialization Fund to support the state’s growing Life Science industry.
The fund would provide grants to companies within the state working to bring to market infectious disease solutions... Read More »
A new report from Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) has found that 20 years after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, America is not fully prepared for public health emergencies.
The report, 2021 Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases,... Read More »
The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense last week applauded the Biden Administration’s work on a new $65.3 billion American Pandemic Preparedness Plan for investments to combat the next biological threat, though it argues that greater funding is necessary to make sufficient plans.
The White... Read More »
A new House bill introduced by United States Reps. Mike Turner (R-OH), Jason Crow (D-CO), and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) -- the Havana Syndrome Service Member Support Act -- seeks to provide aid for those with Havana Syndrome-induced brain injuries and initiate federal efforts to address related... Read More »
New voices were added to the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Tick-Borne Disease Working Group this week, filling positions left vacant by public members looking to workshop ideas on how best to counter rising cases of tick-borne illnesses.
In all, seven new members... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) placed a call for partners this week to aid the organization in developing new sequencing-based, agnostic diagnostic tests better capable of detecting respiratory RNA viruses.
Potential partners will be able to help guide the... Read More »
While key federal agencies prepared interagency response plans and conducted 74 interagency exercises from 2009 through 2019 to prepare for and respond to a wide variety of biological incidents, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently determined that the agencies weren’t on the same... Read More »
Battelle recently showcased its Resource Effective Bioidentification System (REB+) and Multi-Threat Decontamination System (MTDS) as a means of demonstrating efforts to combat Chemical/Biological (CB) threats.
The demonstration stemmed from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) funding... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently selected three teams to support the Harnessing Enzymatic Activity for Lifesaving Remedies (HEALR) program.
The HEALR program, which bolsters chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, and microbiology expertise to transform the field of... Read More »
For two days at the end of July, NTI | bio organized a virtual workshop of more than 40 international participants to address the possibility of developing a new Joint Assessment Mechanism to plug gaps in global biosecurity laid bare by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally proposed by NTI... Read More »
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the founding of Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), a global non-profit partnership dedicated to funding and supporting the development of new products to counter antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
According to... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is encouraging Senate passage of his legislation, The Genomics Data Security Act (S.1744), which establishes protections addressing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) national security risks.
S.1744 was presented in the wake of a recent Office of... Read More »
Is the United States prepared for the next pandemic?
That question has forced experts to either rethink preparedness strategies or find ways to bolster existing policy in the era of COVID-19.
For the researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, this has meant identifying 13... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program announced last week that it is seeking information in three topic areas to support component technology needs.
“DHS SBIR is uniquely positioned to support DHS’s broad mission by finding ways to... Read More »
In an effort to keep transportation safe without slowing the flow of traffic, the New York City subway system, together with a series of collaborators in the federal, academic, and private sectors, is rolling out a testbed and series of biosensors to scan for chemical and biological threats.... Read More »
A new legislative effort is pushing for a new program to designate academic medical centers as research and communication hubs in the American preparation for and response to pandemics.
While COVID-19 is firmly in mind with the program, it also seeks to aid developments for fighting future... Read More »
A new report from the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), a first of its kind known as the AMR Preparedness Index, provides an evaluation and roadmap for the 11 largest global economies and their efforts to tackle rising cases of antimicrobial... Read More »
