techxen Saturday, 07/29/17 11:38:14 AM
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White House working on pandemic, biosecurity strategy
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 by Chris Galford
Responding to what he calls a need for a bio-defense strategy, the Trump Administration’s homeland security advisor, Thomas Bossert, has promised the White House is developing the first comprehensive plan for disease and biological attacks.
“At this point, we need to look clear eyed at the fact that we may have a devastating pandemic influenza or an intentional anthrax attack,” Bossert said.
While attending the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Bossert said that the plan being developed by the White House would involve retired Admiral Tim Ziemer, who previously oversaw efforts to fight malaria for the Obama Administration. While the Bush and Obama Administrations both took steps to address biological threats in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Bossert notes the investments have seen a lot of start and stop.
Bossert claims the new strategy is coming to publication “as soon as we can,” while skirting specific details.
“We have not had as a country a comprehensive bio-defense strategy ever,” Bossert said. “It’s high time we had a bio-defense strategy.”
Pointing to recent events as evidence, Bossert noted that scientists in Canada had recently used commercially available genetic material to rebirth the extinct horse pox virus. He said that such things are proof a synthetic smallpox virus could be produced and demand attention.
While some experts have criticized the Trump Administration for cutting global health program funding, the development of a comprehensive White House plan could ease concerns that the country would not be able to respond to or prevent biological threats like pandemics.
The company also has skin in this game as well:
JPEO-CBD Awards Contract for Weaponized Toxin Treatments
March 30, 2016
The U.S. Army has backed a blood filtering technology to remove poisonous mycotoxins from the blood stream with a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract award.
CytoSorbents, a critical care immunotherapy company, will further develop its CytoSorb blood filter under the development program entitled “Mycotoxin Adsorption with Hemocompatible Porous Polymer Beads.”
CytoSorbents’ purification technologies are based on biocompatible, highly porous polymer beads that can actively remove toxic substances from blood and other bodily fluids by pore capture and surface adsorption.
Managed by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD), the purpose of this SBIR contract is to develop effective blood purification countermeasures for weaponized mycotoxins that can be easily disseminated in water, food and air. Examples include aflatoxin which can cause acute liver failure, neurologic coma, and death, and T2 toxin which can cause fatal lung and liver injury, bone marrow destruction, nerve damage and bleeding.”
A successful Phase I effort will position the company to be competitive for selection in the Phase II SBIR program, valued at more than $1 million.
While this program is driven by JPEO-CBD’s biological defense countermeasure requirements, the system also supports clinical application of the blood purification technology to treat military and civilian patients with fungal infections.
“Fungal infections account for approximately 25% of all hospital-acquired blood infections, are common in immune compromised patients, and have caused the death of more than 90% of infected patients in some studies due to fungal sepsis,” said Dr. Phillip Chan, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of CytoSorbents. “Mycotoxins and excessive cytokine production can be devastating in fungal sepsis. CytoSorb reduces aflatoxin, likely a broad range of other mycotoxins, and cytokines very efficiently in blood and has been used to help successfully treat a number of patients with fungal sepsis to date.”
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