Product Watch

MedCM news

Elusys were awarded a $143 million for further development on their Anthim(R) anthrax treatement. This is for final development, commercial manufacturing and licensing of Anthim the late stage therapeutic. DHHS will provide the money for the treatment that has shown 94% survival rate in animal studies.

Duke University, meanwhile, were awarded a $43 million contract by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop a genomic based diagnostic test to determine whether an individual has been exposed to a radiation incident. Sounds like a good idea, CBRNe World will keep a weather eye.

More S10s for UK

While the UK MoD waits for the roll out of the General Service Respirator Avon have sold another 16,000 S10s into the UK MoD. This is in addition to the three year contract that Avon had with the MoD in 2009 and is clearly nice, if unexpected, support from a customer that had gone with their competitor – Scott Health and Safety - for their next generation mask.

I propose to you...

Cristanini launched their new ‘Proposals for Operational CBRN Decon with different capabilities to decon personnel, vehicles, equipment, soil and fire fighting [sic].’ It would be impossible to try and write about these proposals without reproducing the diagrams – and describing them would be a little like ventriloquism on the radio – so the best thing for those interested parties is to contact them directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

 An eye for the strategic.

Owlstone (see News April 2008) have formed a Strategic Partnership with Selex Gallieo (news March 2008). Owlstone have been working on their Field Assymetric IMS (FAIMS) which has clearly caught the eye of the much larger Selex (which have been working on their Nexsense series of Chem and bio detectors), who will incorporate their technology in the chemical detectors.

Selex and Owlstone have been working together for the past three years on their FAIMS and they will now join forces to develop the product for the US, and other, markets.

Cool running

Gore Active Cooling Products launched their Active Cooling Vest for the protected vehicle market. The vest, which is worn under the PPE, can be plugged into the vehicle power supply, and then - if necessary - removed from manportable usage outside the vehicle, with it’s own low audible power supply.

Threat Watch

Good things come in threes

Kazakhstan opened up its third biological monitoring station in Almaty, as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction/Nunn Lugar program it is designed to be a first line in bio-defense.

Nunn Lugar also received added financial support from President Obama, some of it from the Bioshield programme which had $609 million moved from it. The Consolidated Appropriations Act took $304 million to NIAID with DHHS and another $305 for their Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. A clear blow to the DHS for bio-preparedness.

What’s in the post?

The US Postal Service has announced that they are going to be the lead service involved in distributing vital medical countermeasures should there be a bio-attack in the US. President Obama’s stated that the Service was the only organisation that would be able to do the rapid distribution of vaccines/therapeutics should there be an attack - clearly he is hoping that there won’t be an attack that falls on a Friday [there is a good chance that the US Postal Service will only work a five day week].

About bloody time...

At the risk of getting a job offer from Fox News, the editorial office of CBRNe World was delighted to hear that Amber Cummings, the much abused wife or White Supremacist and would-be dirty bomber James Cummings, was released after receiving a suspended sentence for his murder. Frankly if every wife killed their husband before he could get involved in mass murder, and the attendant loss in quality of life, then the world would be a better place.

Have you got another one? This one is past it’s ‘Best before...’

Federal Inspectors have found that US States have not been storing OP autoinjectors at the right temperatures, raising concern over shelf life and efficacy. The DHHS found that the CDC had not given proper guidelines on storage temperatures and did not monitor those temperatures as often as it should. The most serious concern is that this might have impacted on some other elements of the Strategic Reserve, that are kept in the same facilities and are subject to similar temperature controls. That would be an expensive mistake.

One part tequila to two parts antifreeze...

A New York woman has been arrested for the mixing her boyfriend a batch of margarita’s laced with ethylene glycol – the boyfriend died four days later. Not really a CBRN story, but anyone who knows the editorial office of CBRNe World will realise it’s relevance – especially on a Friday night!

Fuzzy logic.

David Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs in the US, raised the spectre of Drug gangs armed with CBRN devices. He cited that the explosion of the narcotics trade has provided drug cartels with a huge amount of money – this is undeniable. He then went on to suggest that this finance would give them the ability to create, or buy, CBRN devices , but then went on to admit that major terrorist groups got their funding from state sponsors.

Quite what was the point of this, apart from the ability to pep up a powerpoint presentation with bio and rad symbols is beyond me. There would seem to be a lack of motive, if they want to terrorize their enemies surely conventional methods – horse’s heads, paper parcels with fish in them – can do the job just as well. Perhaps the Godfather really wants to make the Mayor or Governor an offer he can’t refuse, but outside of that it seems like a bit of a ‘cheese dream.’

Fuzzy logic 2

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the CIAs ex Director of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, claimed in a report for Havard University that Al Qaeda could have attacked the US with small scale CBRN attacks if they had been interested in doing so.

He went on to suggest that they were patient and willing to wait for years to achieve the weapons that could cause widespread casualties. Similar logic would suggest that if I keep buying lottery tickets I might, one day, win the jackpot - that doesn’t stop me spending the small wins though. At some point they are going to have to do something CBRN, no matter how small, or turn into a terrorist ‘Rotary Club.’