San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/21/2012 -- Joseph Larsen, Chief of Broad Spectrum Antimicrobials (BSA) Program and Division of CBRN Countermeasures at DHHS / ASPR / BARDA will give a featured presentation about Partnering and Working with BARDA at the 9th Anti-Infectives Partnering and Deal-making Conference taking place on July 9-10, 2012 in San Francisco, CA.
The Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA) is responsible for developing and acquiring medical countermeasures directed against microbes of biodefense interest. BARDA is a component of the Department of Health and Human Services, under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). BARDA initiated its program for the development of novel antibacterial and antiviral drugs in January 2010. The goals of BARDA’s Broad Spectrum Antimicrobials program are to enable the U.S. Government to acquire medical countermeasures to protect the American public against bioterrorist threats and to develop additional antimicrobial treatment options needed to counter the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance in common bacterial pathogens.
Given these goals, BARDA funds antimicrobial development programs that concurrently focus on bacterial biodefense threats while supporting the commercialization and regulatory approval of drug candidates directed toward more common microbes. This strategy includes supporting pre-clinical and clinical studies, manufacturing activities, etc, that would expedite antibiotic development for clinically relevant/prevalent infectious diseases. It is BARDA’s intent to increase the robustness of the antimicrobial developmental pipeline for both biodefense pathogens and clinically relevant infectious diseases. To this end, BARDA is seeking to develop public private partnerships for the development of antimicrobials for bacterial threat agents.
Joe Larsen is the Chief of the Broad Spectrum Antimicrobials program at the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA). Previously, Dr. Larsen served as a Senior Science and Technology Manager at the Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JSTO-CBDP) within the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). There, he managed a ~$50M applied research program aimed at the development of medical therapeutics against viral, bacterial, and toxin threat agents. From 2005-2006, Dr. Larsen was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow at the Department of Homeland Security. There, he managed University based research programs aimed at the development enhanced food safety detection systems and medical countermeasures for agricultural threat agents.
GTC's 9th Anti-infectives Partnering and Deal-Making Conference will contribute to the on-going battle against the ever-changing infectious threats by having experts with direct experiences in the field discuss a wide variety of topics on infectious diseases. The agenda also allows time for networking and opportunities to interface with speakers and fellow delegates in a collegial setting. Previous GTC conferences have been catalytic to several successful partnerships and in 2012 we expect this trend to continue.
For more information, please visit http://www.gtcbio.com