Protecting the nation from future
infectious diseases
Our Vision
Vision: Within 5 years, we will deliver an arsenal of tests, vaccines, and medicines to secure the nation’s health and economy.
The Issue
Pandemics are a clear-and-present danger to life as we know it. They have been with us for thousands of years, they are existential, and we still do not have a solution. Even in the present day, we remain structurally unprepared to combat infectious disease:
- There is no market for diseases without incidence. The standard pharma industry model doesn’t work for most infectious diseases — especially sporadic ones.
- Without a market to provide returns, there is no investment. Pandemic threat mitigation is almost exclusively a governmental undertaking.
Pandemic Security Initiative
Unleash the innovation already present in our universities, government labs, and small businesses.
- NIAID is the world’s premiere funding source for infectious diseases, providing almost $6B/y to the best and brightest infectious disease researchers in the country. They are constantly inventing and discovering. They are not, however, equipped to turn an invention into a therapy.
- An entrepreneurial, agile, executive, and purpose-built public-private partnership with a sharp focus on identifying and developing novel diagnostics, vaccines, prophylactics, and therapeutics would protect the country against pandemic-scale threats.
- As an operating, drug-developing entity, this public-private partnership complements and supports BARDA and HHS.
Preparedness Updates
White House (Sep 2021)
American Pandemic Preparedness: : Transforming our Capabilities
A strong vision for pandemic preparedness: a $65B Apollo Program including improvements to our medical defenses (vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics), situational awareness, public health systems, and core capabilities, and then managing the Mission. Operationalizing this plan will dramatically improve our response to the next pandemic.
DHHS (Jul 2021)
Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern
The first major funding announcement from DHHS to harness the power of innovation in our university system for pandemic preparedness. “Starting with the end in mind”, this funding opportunity envisions eight centers that span the country, focused on integrating academicians and industry to create products that can treat future viral threats
Senator Tammy Baldwin (Aug 2021)
Disease X Act
Senator Baldwin’s Disease X Act calls for $2B over four years for the development of medical countermeasures (diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines) against unknown viral threats. The program will be administered by BARDA.
Unleash Innovation
Celdara Medical was purpose-built to transform academic innovations into high-impact medicines. In concert with our affiliates Virtici (Seattle) and MBV (Indianapolis), we already work with hundreds of academic institutions representing over $10B/year in NIH research funding.
Celdara is the fastest-growing company in the state of New Hampshire (in all sectors, based on 3-year AAGR) for each of the last three years, and has been in the top 10 for each of the last six years, winning accolades from the NIH, SBA, and various Federal, state, and local agencies, as well as national and international publications. We have established academic innovation networks worldwide, and “boots on the ground” in Boston, New York, Indianapolis (MBV), and Seattle (Virtici).
Furthermore, we have – with the support of the NIH – established multi-state partnerships to improve medical entrepreneurship in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Delaware, as well as seven additional Western states (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming, which Virtici leads). We work with the country’s major contract research organizations (CROs) and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), as well as most major biotech and pharma companies. Universities, pharmaceutical companies, CROs, and CDMOs to date have been unanimously supportive of the Pandemic Security Initiative.
Finis Origine Pendet
Pandemic Preparedness
The Pandemic Security Initiative is an integral part of the solution. Scientific funding, research, and innovation processes already work well. In parallel, we must continue the repurposing of drugs developed for other indications, as well as the development of rapid-response platforms. There is, however, a development gap between the invention of new tests, vaccines, and therapies, and our ability to stockpile them. The Pandemic Security Initiative proactively identifies the most promising medical countermeasures, and develops them to approved products to remove this development gap.
Collaborators and Supporters
