The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for companies that can help produce battlefield-ready anesthetics that are safe to be administered by general military forces.
The agency on Monday unveiled the Anesthetics for Battlefield Care program in an aim to find easy-to-deliver anesthetic cocktails to reduce trauma for warfighters and civilians, and increase life-saving interventions in combat.
The ABC program is divided into two phases: first is the discovery of novel anesthesia-related targets and mechanisms and the second is drug development based on the discovery phase.
The participating vendors will collaborate with DARPA, the Food and Drug Administration, independent verification and validation partners and other regulatory agencies.
“Anesthetics for Battlefield Care is de-risking a problem that while targeted to the U.S. Department of Defense, will be disruptive to all of medicine. It could benefit first response from rural emergency services, to air medical services, all the way to level I trauma centers,” ABC Program Manager Michael Feasel explained.
DARPA will host a proposers’ day on June 16 to provide more details and answer questions from interested parties about the program.
