What is DRIVe?
DRIVe is a transformative, business-friendly approach to identifying, capturing, nurturing and accelerating lifesaving innovation to solve tough health challenges that span health security and daily healthcare. DRIVe is named after the office that oversees it, the Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures, part of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Why did ASPR/BARDA create DRIVe?
At a time when synthetic biology and personalized medicine are not just conceivable but attainable, the time is uniquely now to solve some of the most daunting, far-reaching health security problems. Through DRIVe, individual innovators, startups and other businesses have a new pathway to bring ideas together, nurture them with experienced partners, and direct them to BARDA’s experts who have demonstrated success in partnering with private industry to take new ideas to regulatory approval.
How is DRIVe changing the way government does business?
DRIVe leverages the flexibilities provided under the 21st Century Cures Act to accelerate healthcare innovation allowing BARDA to partner with a nonprofit organization
that can work with private investors to fund innovative technologies and products to solve systemic health security challenges. DRIVe also can invest in the projects using quick, streamlined funding methods. Central to the new DRIVe approach is a nationwide network of accelerators.
What are accelerators and how will they help innovators?
The accelerator network will assist individual innovators, startups and other businesses in developing their technologies and products, connecting innovators with essential product development and business support services. This support could position innovative technologies and products for follow-on investment from the public or private sectors.
The first accelerator partners announced are:
First Flight Venture Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, $98,313
MedTech Innovator, Los Angeles, $100,000
New Orleans BioInnovation Center, New Orleans, $88,405
SUNY Research Foundation, Stony Brook, NY, $100,000
Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute, Houston, $96,500
University City Science Center, Philadelphia, $100,000
Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center, Lowell, MA, $99,999
Life Science Washington Institute, Seattle, $99,998
What problems is DRIVe trying to solve?
One of the first challenging problems DRIVe will tackle is the need for earlier detection of infection, creating technology that can alert people when they have been infected with a bacteria or virus even before they begin to feel sick. The second is the urgent need to solve sepsis, the body’s life-threatening response to infection or traumatic injury. Sepsis is a top cause of hospitalization in America, leads to 250,000 deaths annually and costs approximately $24 billion a year to treat. The number of sepsis cases could skyrocket after a bioterrorism attack or pandemic.
Join the conversation. Follow #DRIVeInnovation on social media for the latest news. Access the website drive.hhs.gov
Released by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Click here for source.