Advancing Innovation
The Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) charges BARDA to support innovation to reduce the time and cost of medical countermeasures and product advanced research and development. This is to be accomplished through development of technologies that assist the advanced development of countermeasures, investment in research tools and technologies, and research to promote strategic initiatives including rapid diagnostics, broad spectrum antimicrobials, and vaccine manufacturing technologies.
We see this innovation mandate as an opportunity to work with our partners (including NIH, DoD, CDC, industry, and academia) to create new ways to “make medical countermeasure better.” Examples of this approach to innovation could include the development of animal models to support efficacy testing, immune modulation and other broad-spectrum approaches, immunity assessment, and analytical (potency) assays.
An example of innovation from the Pandemic Influenza program is BARDA’s Mix and Match study, assessing various combinations of antigens and adjuvants to obtain a more robust immune response. BARDA plans to support similar initiatives, leveraging technology platforms and products from multiple companies. PAHPA provided an important “antitrust” authority that is used to facilitate cooperation among companies for whom such cooperation would otherwise be difficult to accomplish.
BARDA’s Strategic Science Team helps bring innovation to our programs. This team is the focal point for discussions with the creators of new technologies, ideas, and products. Together with the program managers, they seek ways to integrate innovative science into the development and production of medical countermeasures.
Read more about this topic: Biomedical Advanced Research And Development Authority
Famous quotes containing the words advancing and/or innovation:
“The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection.”
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)