It was supposed to come up with antidotes for pathogens that terrorists might use for a mass-casualty bio-attack. But after spending over $1 billion during the last five years, the Pentagon's Transformational Medical Technology initiative can barely develop drugs ready for a clinical trial. That's why the officials tasked with running it are setting their research-subsidy targets much lower.
In a shift, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's science and technology chief tells the Boston Globe that the bio-initiative will now invest money on early detection of new pathogens. That puts about another $1 billion worth of Pentagon cash closer to where science is, rather than throwing money at crash programs for undeveloped antidotes. Ultimately, the Pentagon wants to develop multi-pronged vaccines that can resist a variety of biological agents -- what it calls "One Drug, Many Bugs." But that's a long way off: step one is understanding how those sicknesses develop.
The Globe reports that the program has hit one snag after another. Out of nearly 50 research programs, only two (unspecified) efforts to neutralize pathogens like Ebola and Marburg have shown promise, and they're not ready for clinical trial. Making matters worse for the program, the Food and Drug Administration doesn't allow experimenting on people, so Transformational Medical Technology would have to make do with animal surrogates.
It's also become something of an object of fun within the military's chem-bio community. Our pal Jason Sigger lamented the program's inability to come up with a lightweight, portable Tricorder-like bio-detection device. The office tasked with coming up with one still sought to buy a Cadillac, one networked into troops' communications system and that can also detect chemical weapons. "All they need to do is warn the individual that there’s a bad bug nearby," Sigger wrote.
But don't expect the Pentagon to steer away from far-out bio-medical research. In 2009, Darpa wanted to create a bank of "universal immunity donor cells" to head bio-outbreaks off at the pass. More recently, in September, it doled out over $5 million so Arizona State University could experiment with growing vaccines with the aid of tobacco plants. "I don’t know if we can pull this off, but I think this basic idea might work," one of the ASU researchers shrugged when the grant was announced.
Still, according to the Globe, if the military wants to speed up the day when it can deliver mass antidotes for a host of bio-threats, it's got to subsidize pharma companies' research in areas that won't yield the next generation of lucrative "blockbuster drugs." Bio-defense expert Crystal Franco of the Center for Biosecurity tells the paper, "It is different when the government is your only market. There needs to be incentives for companies to participate, to take it on for the public good." That is, until someone figures out how to make Viagra stop anthrax.
Photo: Texas Army National Guard
See Also:
