Battelle and Nanotherapeutics, Inc. announced today that the organizations have entered an alliance to bring together core research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) and manufacturing capabilities needed to expedite the development of medical countermeasures urgently required by the Department of Defense (DoD) to protect deployed military forces from Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) threats.
Chemical and biological weapons continue to threaten warfighter and civilian populations in war zones such as Syria. With the rising threats of terrorism, they also are a potential homeland security threat. In order to better protect the warfighter, the DoD urgently needs new countermeasures, including vaccines, post-exposure prophylactics and treatments for acute exposure reactions.
Battelle has provided RDT&E facilities and expertise to support DoD CBRN medical countermeasure programs for decades. Nanotherapeutics operates a U.S.-based state of the art BSL-3 capable facility offering extensive capabilities, including a pilot facility for performing optimization of upstream, downstream and formulation functions, bulk cGMP manufacturing, and analytical development for proteins, antibodies, viral vaccines and gene therapy drug products.
“The alliance between the two companies will enable faster and more effective development of medical countermeasures to protect and treat military populations against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks and outbreaks of naturally occurring emerging and genetically engineered infectious diseases,” said Dr. Prasad Raje, President and CEO for Nanotherapeutics, Inc.
Historically, many commercial companies have shied away from participating in this space, primarily due to the challenges of developing these products along with the low anticipated return on investment (ROI). However, the recent expansion of the Food and Drug Administration Priority Review Voucher Program to include CBRN threat agents increases potential ROI, while the Nanotherapeutics/Battelle Strategic Alliance significantly reduces potential risks for companies desiring to develop medical countermeasures to CBRN threats.
“Battelle is in a unique position to provide a much-needed bridge between commercial companies interested in medical countermeasure development and the government agencies that need them,” said Julie Swick, Vice President and General Manager of Battelle’s Life Science Research business.
