Building systems to support development of drugs for biodefense

The mission of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID), is to support research and product development that addresses the control and prevention of infectious diseases. This mission includes the development of new drugs to mitigate illness, suffering, and death resulting from an expanding spectrum of naturally emerging diseases and potential biological weapons. DMID has established new resources and additional infrastructure to address these challenges. In addition, DMID plans to transition to a new paradigm for research and development approaches based on three concepts that comprise a broad spectrum approach: products with broad spectrum activity; broad spectrum technology that can be applied to improve specific drug characteristics (e.g., shelf life); and broad spectrum platforms that will reduce the time and cost to manufacture and evaluate products. (C) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.