NEWS | May 14, 2021

JPM CBRN Medical’s RAIDR RF Innovates DOD Medical Acquisition, Wins BRONZE at 2021 Edison Awards

By Erik Heine, JPM CBRN Medical Strategic Communications

The annual Edison Awards competition is dedicated to honoring excellence and showcasing game-changing innovations that are rapidly reshaping the evolving world around us. An Edison Award recognition is one of the highest accolades an organization can receive, and the Joint Project Manager for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Medical (JPM CBRN Medical) proudly brought home a 2021 Edison Award BRONZE win in the category of “Innovative Services, Prescription Drug Access Platforms” with its Rapid Acquisition and Investigation of Drugs for Repurposing (RAIDR) Repurposing Framework (RF).
 
The JPM CBRN Medical organization is committed to providing U.S. military forces and the nation with safe, effective, and innovative medical solutions to counter chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats. It also facilitates the advanced development and acquisition of medical countermeasures (MCMs) and systems to enhance the nation’s biodefense response capability. To this end, the RAIDR RF was born, a comprehensive process that facilitates the rapid delivery of an existing MCM to both the warfighter and the general population like never before. Conceived and created by a group of regulatory, quality, logistics, strategic, scientific, and legal subject matter experts, the RAIDR RF is an innovative way of assessing existing medical technology for expanded benefit. The RAIDR RF process utilizes several tools – to include a Repurposing Scorecard and a Repurposing Report - that, when effectively used together, have proven capable of successfully identifying the likelihood that an MCM will make a promising repurposing candidate.
 
In the world of drug development, traditional processes in the United States can easily take over a decade, and cost billions of dollars to travel from a laboratory to your medicine cabinet. But in the face of, say, a pandemic like COVID-19, people do not have that kind of time; and the value of the JPM CBRN Medical’s RAIDR RF has proven itself under fire. During the current pandemic, over 33 compounds have already been reviewed using this process; this has resulted in 11 successful “deliveries” to end users (defined as products in the hands of the people that need them) and 12 National Stock Numbers (NSN) assignments. The RAIDR RF process has made it possible to provide key medical interventions much more quickly than standard development and acquisition, without compromising safety, efficacy, or quality; and all at a fraction of the cost. Repurposed drugs are also more sustainable, as they are already in production, with existing manufacturing infrastructures and supply chains.
 
“The RAIDR RF holds great promise for outbreak and pandemic applications, and even broader application for future CBRN threats”, said U.S. Army Col. Ryan Eckmeier, Joint Project Manager for CBRN Medical. “We are proud to receive the BRONZE Edison Award for ‘Innovative Services, Prescription Drug Access Platforms,’ and look forward to providing additional benefit to our service members and the nation through accelerated delivery of safe and effective medical countermeasures, using this framework.”
 
For more information about the RAIDR RF, visit: https://www.jpeocbrnd.osd.mil/JPM-CBRN-Medical-RAIDR/
JPM CBRN Medical