Insights from BARDA Industry Day 2023

Part Three

Part Three in our BDO series on BARDA Industry Day 2023 and partnering opportunities to accelerate the development of medical countermeasures (MCMs) from Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Industry Day 2023.

BARDA Industry Day 2023 was a great opportunity to showcase BARDA’s most recent initiatives to support pandemic preparedness — including Project NextGen, a multifaceted initiative targeting advancements in various fields crucial for combating public health threats.

With an initial budget of $5 billion, Project NextGen provides funding and support to research efforts that align with its goals of fostering innovation and development of adaptable technologies that can be swiftly adjusted to counteract evolving and emerging health threats, including infectious diseases, pandemics, and potential bioterrorism events.

As BARDA continues to expand its portfolio, next generation MCM development will focus on:

Vaccine and therapeutic platforms that improve speed, breadth, duration, and manufacturing costs with alternative routes

Single dose primary series capabilities for vaccines

New technologies that decrease monoclonal antibody production costs

Manufacturing on demand

Clinical trials that consider decentralization and factor enrollment of more representative populations

The core tenets of Project NextGen in supporting this next generation of medical countermeasure development are to strengthen, treat, and enable.

BARDA aims to strengthen vaccine development by investing in vaccines that offer enhanced protection against variants of concern and supporting innovative vaccine platforms, such as mRNA, viral vectors, and recombinant technologies. These platforms offer can offer faster and adaptable responses to emerging pathogens by enabling rapid vaccine development.

Priority investments also include CRISPR-based technologies for diagnostics and therapeutics to support more targeted treatments against infectious diseases and biological threats. Further, Project NextGen emphasizes the acceleration of therapeutics development through novel approaches such as monoclonal antibodies, small molecules, and immune-based therapies to counteract infectious diseases and related health threats.

BARDA seeks to enable innovation by supporting advancements in manufacturing technologies to scale up the production of medical countermeasures rapidly and efficiently, promoting prompt responses during outbreaks or crises. Moreover, BARDA’s priority of investing in data integration from various sources and use of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms enables analysis of patterns to support outbreak predictions and decision-making for targeted responses.

Overall, BARDA’s Project NextGen serves as a comprehensive strategy to bolster the nation's preparedness against a wide array of public health challenges by harnessing cutting-edge technologies and fostering collaborative efforts within the scientific and medical communities. These technical endeavors represent an intersection of scientific research, engineering, and innovation, all aimed at revolutionizing the development.

Interested in more information? Contact a member of our team for help navigating these program and funding opportunities and watch the website or sign up for our Insights for more BARDA Industry Day insights.