The Medical Countermeasure Systems (MCS) Joint Acquisition Vaccine Program (JVAP) Biological Surety Agents and Toxins (BSAT) program has awarded at $4 million contract to IIT Research Institute (IITRI).
The service provided under this contract is for the maintenance of a Biological surety program that is compliant with DoD Biological Select Agents and Toxins regulations to support the ongoing mission of the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program JVAP. Activities to be conducted include training, annual and ongoing medical evaluations, BSAT inventory, badging, hosting audits, BSAT security equipment maintenance, emergency response drills, and annual vulnerability assessments.
The requested services are needed to support the Plague Vaccine Program. The plague vaccine is intended to prevent pneumonic plague from aerosolized exposure to the highly lethal bacterium, Yersinis pestis (YP), the causative agent of plague. Testing requires challenging vaccinated animals with live Yersinis pestis, which is classified as a select agent. The FDA also requires that these testing procedures be validated.
The Government funded IITRI under a separate contract action to develop and validate these assays (i.e., potency). IITRI is the only facility that has the required validated assays to support continued development of the plague vaccine.
The period of performance is up to 36 months.
Source: FBO.gov, Image: Yersinia pestis/NIAID