Biological
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) signed S. 2512 on Friday as companion legislation to H.R. 4400, a proposal introduced earlier this year by U.S. Reps. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) and Susan Brooks (R-IN) to add the Zika virus to the Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher Program.
“Our... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., submitted a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday for the approval of the manufacture of BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) in the company’s large scale Building 55 manufacturing... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) chaired a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday to address the federal perspective on the state of U.S. biodefense preparedness.
“Today, we look forward to learning the perspective of federal agencies on the state of our... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday to add the Zika virus to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Priority Review Voucher Program.
The legislation, the Adding Zika Virus to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act, S. 2512, would add Zika virus to the... Read More »
The United States Army announced a collaboration on Monday between two agencies to combine their efforts to develop new vector surveillance methodologies to detect emerging infections in local mosquito populations and to develop a near real-time recording system to combat such threats.
The two... Read More »
Founded in 2001 to train professionals in biosecurity and disaster preparedness, the Institute for Biosecurity at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice recently told Homeland Preparedness News that the United States needs to continuously improve on its... Read More »
Speaking at a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expert consultation on Zika Virus in the Americas in Washington on Thursday, Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) addressed the current state of Zika surveillance in the Americas.
While the ability to... Read More »
The United States is increasingly turning to biodefense as threats against the homeland continue to grow, but the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey's Dr. Raymond Zilinskas recently warned that the larger problem remains that no one knows the true state of American... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Wednesday that a new investigational test to screen blood donations for Zika virus is now available in areas with known mosquito-borne transmission of Zika.
“The availability of an investigational test to screen donated blood for Zika virus is... Read More »
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), along with Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) criticizing the department’s response to the ongoing spread of the Zika... Read More »
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) held a workshop on Friday in Lyon, France, to enhance the capacity of authorities in Iraq to better prevent, detect and respond to biological threats.
“I am confident this workshop will deepen our levels of awareness – not just on... Read More »
In the wake of the Elizabethkingia anophelis outbreak that has killed 17 people in Wisconsin and infected 54 people, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) has requested information from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) regarding it’s official... Read More »
The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense’s “National Blueprint for Biodefense” warned that “the United States is underprepared for biological threats,” adding that “biological events may be inevitable, (but) their level of impact on our country is not.”
To combat a biological... Read More »
Scientists from both the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) joined together at a March 7-8 conference to discuss progress and the objective projections for a joint biosurveillance project.
"The goal of the program is to enhance readiness by... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories discussed its new technique for simultaneously identifying mosquito-born diseases like West Nile virus, Zika virus, and malaria or the Ebola virus on Monday.
“Our ultimate goal is to develop an autonomous device to passively monitor for mosquito-borne diseases,”... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved the Anthim injection to treat inhalation anthrax in combination with appropriate antibacterial drugs.
Anthim is also approved to prevent inhalation anthrax when alternative therapies are not available or appropriate.
“As... Read More »
Soligenix, Inc., announced on Wednesday that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has exercised its option to accelerate the regulatory activities with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Soligenix's heat stable ricin toxin vaccine RiVax.
The NIAID’s... Read More »
The World Health Organization announced on Thursday that 42 days have passed since the last person confirmed to have Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone tested negative for a second time.
“Today marks another milestone in the country’s effort to defeat Ebola,” the WHO said. “WHO... Read More »
SIGA Technologies, Inc., announced on Thursday that it has the initiated a Phase I single ascending dose clinical study for the intravenous (IV) formulation of its lead drug candidate TPOXX (tecovirimat) for the treatment of orthopoxvirus diseases.
Orthopoxvirus diseases include smallpox and... Read More »
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on Wednesday that a vaccine jointly developed by the NIH and the FDA had yielded positive results in a clinical trial in which volunteers were infected with dengue virus six months after receiving either their vaccine or a placebo... Read More »
Homeland Preparedness News recently interviewed Dr. Asha George, co-director of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a bipartisan organization recommending changes to U.S. policy and law to strengthen national biodefense.
HPN: The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense is strongly... Read More »
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) announced on Monday that it has built an enhanced threat detection device called CASTLE that increases the range of detection for CBRNE threats.
CASTLE, which stands for CBRNE assessment science and technology lab at ECBC, greatly... Read More »
The National International Health Regulations (IHR) Focal Point of Uruguay announced last week that the country has seen a sustained increase in the number of suspected cases - 570 - and confirmed cases - 17 - of dengue fever.
All confirmed cases were positive for dengue virus by reverse... Read More »
After a three-day consultation on the virus, the World Health Organization released the criteria on Wednesday by which Zika virus research and development should advance.
The first way to to combat the virus to is continue to develop novel ultiplex tests for flaviviruses, or viruses related to... Read More »
The Alliance for Biosecurity applauded Wednesday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approval of the Medical Countermeasure Innovation Act, S. 2055.
The legislation would accelerate the development of new vaccines and medicines meant to protect American citizens from... Read More »
The U.S. Army Contracting Command announced on Feb. 25 that it had awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) to provide logistics support services to the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday responded to a letter led by Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) urging the agency to add Zika virus to the FDA tropical disease priority review voucher (PRV) program.
In its response, the FDA opted to not add the virus to its voucher program.
By... Read More »
Immunovaccine, Inc., announced on Wednesday that it will begin a research project toward the development of a vaccine to fight against the emerging Zika virus.
Immunovaccine said the vaccine will be developed using its proprietary DepoVax platform, which has produced some promising results in... Read More »
A new study published this week in the online open-access journal mBio suggests that the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) develops mutations that make the virus less virulent, rather than more virulent.
The virus causes severe respiratory infection and has a worldwide... Read More »
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Joint Science and Technology Office, along with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, announced this week that a compound demonstrated no adverse effects in its Phase 1 trials against the Ebola virus.
The compound, GS-5734,... Read More »
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced this week that they have developed a new simulation for drug-membrane permeability, increasing the production speed for nerve agent treatments.
By using in-house supercomputers, LLNL researchers are simulating the energy... Read More »
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on Wednesday about the continuing danger posed by Zika virus to the Americas and plans to respond to the virus both nationally and internationally.
Zika virus is primarily spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Such... Read More »
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced on Monday the discovery of one of the key ways the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) changes and adapts between patients, allowing for even more research on the complex condition.
MERS-CoV is a deadly... Read More »
The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced a discovery last week that a single monoclonal antibody isolated from a human Ebola virus disease survivor protected non-human primates from the virus.
The antibody can now advance to testing in humans as a potential... Read More »
Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) recently announced that it has developed a device known as SmartCAR that uses colorimetric assay to identify such dangerous chemical compounds as anthrax, ricin and plague.
“Although much of the technology in SmartCAR is commercial off-the-shelf, it... Read More »
