Could DARPA Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program pave the way to containing the COVID-19 pandemic?
ARLINGTON, Va. – Starting in 2017, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., launched the Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program to create a new medicine to treat infections within 60 days and prevent spread of the infection. C4ISRnet reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
19 March 2020 -- Now the P3 program could play a role in ending the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease disruptions to the military and homeland. These disruptions have hit the military, with everything from strained telework resources to canceled exercises to actual infections among service members.
One of the companies awarded contracts by DARPA was AbCellera Biologics Inc. in Vancouver, B.C., which through the program refined its approach to the discovery and manufacture of antibodies that are most effective in containing a novel infection.
While DARPA projects often anticipate the future, it has been a fast turnaround from anticipating greater pandemics in 2017 and 2018 to tackling one in 2020. AbCellera announced it is partnering with Eli Lilly to develop and manufacture an antibody treatment that can bind and neutralize COVID-19, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.
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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
