{"id":45134,"date":"2023-08-23T15:56:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T19:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=45134"},"modified":"2023-08-23T15:56:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T19:56:49","slug":"hhs-directs-100m-for-covid-19-venture-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=45134","title":{"rendered":"HHS Directs $100M for Covid-19 Venture Investments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Gerd Altmann, Pixabay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

23 Aug. 2023. The Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $100 million for venture investments in new technologies to prepare for future threats from Covid-19. The funds are part of a $1.4 billion package<\/a> for the NextGen project<\/a>, announced yesterday by HHS’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response for a series of clinical trials, a new monoclonal antibody for prevention, and a challenge competition.<\/p>\n

HHS is directing the $100 million of the NextGen package to the Global Health Investment Corporation<\/a>, a not-for-profit organization that applies a venture investing model to fund what it calls high-impact biomedical innovations. GHIC works through partnerships with government and private entities including the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority<\/a> or BARDA, an agency of HHS responsible for counteracting public health threats including emerging infectious diseases. In 2021, BARDA and GHIC established a 10-year program to create a venture portfolio for global health security<\/a>, to advance new technologies in vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and manufacturing processes.<\/p>\n

While vaccines and therapies for Covid-19 infections receive most of the public attention, the BARDA-GHIC partnership also supports the underlying infrastructure needed for delivering these products to clinics and patients. One of the program’s portfolio companies is National Resilience Inc.<\/a>, known simply as Resilience, a company providing biotechnology manufacturing and distribution services. Science & Enterprise<\/a> reported on the company’s initial operations in Nov. 2020 and a few times since.<\/p>\n

Crowd-sourced competitions for new ideas<\/h4>\n

Another part of the NextGen project involving entrepreneurs is a challenge competition for new technologies applicable to Covid-19 preparedness. BARDA and Johnson & Johnson Innovation, a division of the health care products company, sponsor the Blue Knight<\/a> program that conducts crowd-sourced competitions for new ideas in combating threats to public health, including infectious diseases. The NextGen initiative is allocating $10 million to encourage fresh ideas from entrepreneurs, university labs, and student teams.<\/p>\n

In May 2023, BARDA and J&J Innovation held a $10 million Blue Knight challenge competition<\/a> for vaccines, therapies and related technologies addressing potential health security threats, with prizes of up to $1 million for preclinical solutions and $3 million for entries that reach clinical development. Ten companies received awards from the competition.<\/p>\n

The majority of new NextGen funds, $1 billion of the $1.4 billion total, is devoted to new mid-stage clinical trials testing vaccine candidates against emerging Covid-19 variants. The trials are conducted by companies taking part in BARDA’s clinical studies network<\/a> established to streamline trial start-up and execution for product candidates addressing security threats from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons as well as infectious diseases.<\/p>\n

NextGen is directing another $326 million to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Tarrytown, New York for a new type of synthetic monoclonal antibody<\/a> to prevent infections from SARS-CoV-2 viruses responsible for Covid-19 disease. The contract with BARDA calls for Regeneron to initially design and propose a monoclonal antibody candidate for review by BARDA and the company for subsequent development, testing, and regulatory review. Regeneron expects the new antibody candidate to begin clinical trials next year.<\/p>\n

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