Biological
In a public letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), a group of Democratic House members requested that the committee hold a hearing regarding the country’s ability to be prepared for and respond to various biological threats.
The group, which... Read More »
The nation’s supply of U.S.-licensed YF-VAX yellow fever vaccine is expected to be depleted by mid-2017 due to delays in the manufacturing process at Sanofi Pasteur, according to a recent report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
YF-VAX is the only yellow... Read More »
According to a report recently published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most-reported bacteria causing foodborne illnesses in America last year were Campylobacter and Salmonella.
Data was gathered through the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance... Read More »
With the nation’s signature preparedness law due for reauthorization in 2018, leaders now are readying public health stakeholders across local, state and federal levels for battle on Capitol Hill.
Not only should those in the public health sector be battle-ready to support renewal of the... Read More »
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in collaboration with the University of Wuppertal in Germany, recently held two courses that focused on loss prevention and safety promotion in the chemical industry, giving students important information on modern technical safety... Read More »
Marines assigned to the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Platoon, Marine Forces Reserve recently completed a seven-day assessment and consequence training exercise at the Volunteer Training Site in Catoosa, Georgia.
Participants took part in exercises, including... Read More »
Battelle recently announced it has entered into a research and development agreement with Nanotherapeutics Inc. to expedite the creation of new medical countermeasures for deployed military forces facing a variety of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats.
The agreement... Read More »
Officials from the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD) and the Army Material Command (AMC) recently called on the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) to provide assistance to increase efficiencies and reduce costs in the nation’s... Read More »
Emergent Biosolutions said on Friday it signed a $53 million modified contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in order to allow for future filling and deliveries of its botulism antitoxin to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.
The contract covers a... Read More »
Sustainable federal funding to develop and stockpile medical countermeasures is critical to the security and public health emergency preparedness of the United States, panelists said during a Bipartisan Policy Center event on Tuesday.
And medical countermeasures are needed now as the United... Read More »
Marines and sailors assigned to the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) in Indian Head, Maryland recently traveled to Guardian Centers in Perry, Georgia to take part in Exercise Scarlet Response 2017.
The annual exercise aims to develop skills related to chemical biological (CB)... Read More »
The United States must prepare for surprise attacks at home and abroad from traditional weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and from the new, emerging and largely unknown consequences posed by synthetic biological threats, a senior defense official told House congressional members on Thursday.
... Read More »
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently conducted a study examining actions the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have taken to manage the use of medically-important antibiotics in food animals.
For its review, GAO... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) recently introduced the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act, which aims to preserve the effectiveness of medically-important antibiotics used to treat human and animal bacterial infections.
U.S. Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rosa... Read More »
Emergent Biosolutions Inc. on Friday signed a two-year contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) valued at $100 million for the delivery of the company’s anthrax vaccine, called BioThrax, to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
The most recent... Read More »
FLIR Systems, Inc. recently received a delivery order valued at $54.2 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for 50 U.S. Army chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear dismounted reconnaissance sets, kits and outfit (CBRN DR-SKO) systems.
The order is part of a five-year... Read More »
Meenakshi Malik, associate professor at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, was recently awarded a $480,000 grant to expand her study into Francisella tularensis, the bacteria that causes the potentially fatal disease tularemia.
The three-year grant was funded by the National... Read More »
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) recently awarded a contract to Leidos, a global science and technology company, to support the agency’s cooperative biological engagement program (CBEP), cooperative threat reduction program (CTR), and scientific and technical engagement partnership... Read More »
According to a study recently published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a lineage of multidrug resistant P. falciparum malaria superbugs has spread through parts of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, resulting in high treatment failure rates for artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs).
The... Read More »
Elusys Therapeutics, Inc. recently received $16.35 million for completing the second delivery of ANTHIM injection for the treatment of anthrax exposure.
The funds are part of a $45 million procurement contract to provide the treatment for the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). Elusys... Read More »
Greater coordination between the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security is needed to help prevent a biological attack on the U.S. agriculture industry that threatens the nation’s food supply, a panel of experts on agrodefense said last... Read More »
Battelle, a nonprofit research and development institute, said the key to preparing for the rapidly growing threat of biological or chemical weapons is by developing countermeasures with technology that is tested against live agents.
Battelle’s recommendation was directed toward defense... Read More »
Soligenix Inc. recently extended its development agreement with Emergent Biosolutions to implement a commercially viable production technology for a vaccine candidate being developed to protect against ricin exposure called RiVax.
Soligenix is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agriculture Specialists at Port Huron recently discovered remnants of a khapra beetle, an insect designated for a high-risk of pest infection, in a cargo shipment of split and washed beans from India at the Blue Water Bridge.
After a brief examination,... Read More »
Emergent Biosolutions said on Thursday it signed a $911 million contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to supply vaccines to the Strategic National Stockpile to bolster U.S. national preparedness efforts in the event of a biological attack.
The global biopharmaceutical... Read More »
The Alliance for Biosecurity commended the U.S. Senate’s passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, which contains provisions to promote innovation and efficiency in the development of new medical countermeasures.
A key issue the organization cited in the bill was a provision for the development... Read More »
Legislation to protect first responders from anthrax exposure in the event of a biological attack passed the House on Tuesday and will now go to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.
The First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act would authorize a pilot program for the Department of... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) on Friday announced the selection of Rick Bright for the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
“BARDA succeeds through... Read More »
New research analyzing the 2012 chikungunya outbreak in a Bangladeshi village may provide insight on how mosquito-borne illnesses like Zika are spread.
The study, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and... Read More »
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently agreed to increase funding for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement by $44.25 million for public health emergency preparedness efforts in 2016 and 2017.
The funds were directed to 62... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently launched a new initiative aimed at combating potential agricultural threats using targeting gene therapy to protect mature plants in the growing season.
The initiative, called Insect Allies, is seeking to leverage insect vectors and... Read More »
The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) recently conducted its Operational Response Project in Amman, Jordan, to identify best practices related to command and control, hazard risk assessment, and evidence exploitation.
The project brought together 45 Jordanian law enforcement... Read More »
A group of international vaccine experts recently shared a series of requirements for the development of a safe and effective Zika virus vaccine.
The research group features experts from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and... Read More »
Soligenix, Inc. was invited to the National Organization for Rare Disorders’ (NORD) Rare Diseases and Orphan Products Breakthrough Summit on Tuesday to present preliminary data on the Dusquetide and RiVax programs.
NORD’s Rare Diseases and Orphan Products Breakthrough Summit brings together... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., released an update on Friday of the status of its 2011 procurement contract for BioThrax with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
BioThrax is the only anthrax vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The vaccine is... Read More »
