Medical Countermeasures and CBRN - from early research through to licensure.

Medical Countermeasures are, quite literally, looking for the CBRN panacea. Spanning everything from improved efficacy in existing vaccines through to ‘one drug – many bug’ and boosted immune response, the work that the US is doing is leading the world. CBRNe Convergence has got together a panel of some of the US’ leading experts together to talk about the work that they are doing on helping fund early basic research all the way through to licensure and production.

The President has made medical countermeasures one of the most important objectives of a variety of government departments – from the Department of Health and Human Services through to the Department of Defense – and their work is truly world beating: without parallel in Europe or Asia.

The Workshop will start with the Transformational Medical Technologies (TMT) Program, have an annual budget of approximately $200 million dollars for traditional military threat agents (eg. CDC’s Level A and B) as well as combating emerging diseases. TMT was created by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to protect the Warfighter from emerging and genetically altered biological threats by discovering and developing a wide range of medical countermeasures through enhanced medical research, development, test and evaluation programs.

The TMT Program Office is physically located at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in Fort Belvoir with personnel matrixed from the Joint Science and Technology Office - DTRA and Joint Program Executive Office - Chemical and Biological Defense, with oversight from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (more information on TMT: http://www.tmti-cbdefense.org).

This will be followed by a presentation from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on the work that they have been doing on medical countermeasures. Established by the pandemic and All Hazards Prepared­ness Act of 2006, the U.S. DHHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Pre­paredness and Response (ASPR) is charged with leading the nation in preventing, preparing for, and responding to the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters.

ASPR collaborates within HHS and with other fed­eral, state, local, tribal and international officials and the private healthcare sector to ensure a unified, inte­grated approach in preparedness and response. ASPR serves as the Secretary’s princi­pal advisory staff on matters related to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.

The Workshop will be held on the afternoon of the 2^nd of November, within the Rosen Plaza – venue for the entire CBRNe Convergence conference – and is on a strictly first come, first served basis.

Please check back here for information on additional workshop leaders as they become available.