SPOTLIGHT

USAMRIID Products Serve Civilian As Well As Military Need

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) is a Defense Department "tech base" organization, where vaccine candidates, diagnostics, and therapeutics are discovered, refined, and taken through various stages of testing before hand-off for advanced development by the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program, the Joint Program Executive Office-Chemical Biological Defense, or a civilian organization. USAMRIID currently has a research budget of $50 to $60 million annually. More than 80 per cent of its activities directly support DoD; other customers include the U.S. Army, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Since 1969, USAMRIID scientists, who identify and evaluate one new medical countermeasure per year on average, have developed more than 20 medical research products, including vaccines, prophylactic and therapeutic drugs, diagnostic systems, and information to safeguard the health of service members.

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Taking advantage of advancements in biotechnology over the past decade, USAMRIID has developed candidate vaccines for botulinum neurotoxins, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, plague, staphylococcal enterotoxins A and B, and hantaviruses, as well as a next-generation anthrax vaccine and rapid diagnostic About a dozen other vaccines developed at USAMRIID are maintained in Investigational New Drug (IND) status and are used to vaccinate at-risk personnel in the lab and in the field where necessary. Several of these products, managed by Army MEDCOM SMART Teams, were made available through contingency clinical protocols to war-fighting commands during the 2003 Gulf War.

While most of USAMRIID's research products were intended for military use, civilian agencies have often depended upon USAMRIID products or information in response to bioterrorism. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and commercial manufacturers have sought USAMRIID's biodefense medical products for civilian applications. During the past two years, USAMRIID has successfully moved products into advanced development through a partnership with NIAID. NIAID has supported the development of the next-generation anthrax vaccine, called recombinant PA (protective antigen), as well as multivalent vaccines for botulinum neurotoxins. NIAID is considering the development of vaccines against plague and Rift Valley fever based upon technologies developed at USAMRIID. Similarly, USAMRIID scientists are collaborating with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify and develop therapeutics for a number of agents, including Ebola virus, several toxins, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), and orthopoxviruses 15-18. For more information: www.usamriid.army.mil