Recent News

By Category: Agents & Toxins

PharmAthene Receives Court Decision on Smallpox Drug Dispute

(Metro Business Media) PharmAthene Receives Court Decision on Smallpox Drug DisputeMetro Business MediaBased upon today's ruling, PharmAthene was awarded 50% of net profits for worldwide sales of ST-246, an orally available smallpox antiviral drug candidate, for ten years pursuant to SIGA receiving $40 million in upfront payments. …

September 26, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, and Public Health
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Security, health talks flag home-grown terror

(Sydney Morning Herald) It was noted that plants yielding ricin and other deadly toxins grow freely in Victoria and "their relative ease of production make them suitable candidates for biological attacks''. There are no publicly known cases of environmental activists planning …

September 9, 2011
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Agents & Toxins, Biological Weapons, and Bioterrorism
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Smallpox vaccines against NK attack unusable

(The Korea Herald) The majority of smallpox vaccines that Seoul has stockpiled in case of a biological attack by North Korea have either expired or failed to pass toxicity tests. According to a report by the Korea Food & Drug Administration released on Wednesday, …

September 7, 2011
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Agents & Toxins, Bioterrorism, and Countermeasures
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News tips from the journal mBio®

(American Society for Microbiology) New strategy for developing rapid diagnostics; how Q fever invades and replicates inside killer immune cells; protein necessary for bacteria to produce ulcers; and same conditions, different outcome in fungal infection.

September 1, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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From mild-mannered to killer plague

(Northwestern University) How did a bacterium that causes mild stomach irritation rapidly evolve into a deadly assassin responsible for the most devastating pandemics in human history? New DNA sequencing techniques reveal how Yersinia pseudotuberculosis became Yersinia pestis, otherwise know as the plague. The new study offers a glimpse into how the new technology might aid Read More »