Forbes: An Unlikely Biotech Investor: The Government
“…This year …, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), took the opportunity at BIO to make a major program announcement regarding a new funding initiative called DRIVe (Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures). … DRIVe’s mission will be to accelerate research, development, and availability of transformative countermeasures to protect Americans. Unlike the current funding mechanisms the government uses, it seems that DRIVe will act more like a strategic investor in private and public companies in addition to being a grant maker. … BARDA’s job isn’t as easy as funding research to make medical countermeasures materialize. It has to work with companies to come to the table and work on initiatives that aren’t necessarily on the radar screens of big pharma and biotech. … For the better part of a decade, BARDA has been working with pharmaceutical companies to enhance our ability to respond to threats like Ebola. … BARDA and Merck have been working in concert to take the fight to Ebola, developing a single-shot vaccine that is being [tested] to protect people who are at high risk of exposure to the virus…” (Brozak, 6/8).