online the necessary infrastructure for medical countermeasure manufacturing; it supports the construction of new facilities as well as retrofitting existing facilities for maximal capacity and flexibility. it has also explored the use of multi-product manufacturing facilities to provide flexibility and surge capacity and enable rapidly providing countermeasures in the dosage forms required for use in the field. barda has also established a network of formulation/fill-finish manufacturers for emergency production and distribution. barda has also explored the creation of centers of excellence for the development and production of non-commercial products with assistance from industry partners. advancing innovation pahpa charges barda to support innovation to reduce the time and cost of medical countermeasures and product advanced research and development. this was to be accomplished through development of technologies that assist the advanced development of countermeasures, investment in research tools and technologies, and research to promote strategic initiatives including rapid diagnostics, broad spectrum antimicrobials, and vaccine manufacturing technologies. pahpai provided further authorities for barda to promote innovation through industry assistance and partnerships. barda has taken this innovation mandate as an opportunity to work with its partners (including nih, dod, cdc, industry, and academia) to create new ways to “make medical countermeasure better.” examples of this approach to innovation could include the development of animal models to support efficacy testing, immune modulation and other broad-spectrum approaches, immunity assessment, and analytical (potency) assays. a cited example of barda’s approach to innovation from the pandemic influenza program is barda's “mix and match” study, assessing various combinations of antigens and adjuvants to obtain a more robust immune response. barda has stated plans to support similar initiatives, leveraging technology platforms and products from multiple companies. for example, pahpa provided an “antitrust” authority that barda has used to facilitate cooperation between companies for whom such cooperation would otherwise be difficult to accomplish. fujifilm corporation announced in april 2017 that it would invest $130 million to increase production capacity for its biocdmo division. the division “focuses on contract development & manufacturing for biologics.” fujifilm diosynth biotechnologies, with help from a barda grant, invested around $93 million to build a production facility in the us state of texas. the facility would include “mammalian cell culture bioreactors” and was planned to open operations at the start of 2018. in april 2017, switzerland-based basilea pharmaceutica and the food and drug administration reached an agreement regarding two phase 3 clinical studies of an antibiotic developed by basilea, ceftobiprole. the two clinical studies would examine ceftobiprole for the treatment of “staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (bloodstream infections) and acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections.” basilea signed a contract with barda, which it entered into in 2016 for the clinical phase 3 development of the antibiotic. barda provided initial funding of $20 million but could provide up to $100 million over a period of 4–5 years. in 2017, barda signed a three-year $8.1 million contract with inbios international, inc. of seattle, washington to develop a “point-of-care diagnostic test that may be able to determine within 15 minutes whether a patient has been infected with the bacterium that causes anthrax.” in september 2017, barda awarded velico medical $15.5 million for development of a technology that uses spray drying of human plasma for transfusions. the current industry standard is to freeze plasma. frozen plasma can take 40 or more minutes to defrost and deliver. according to fierce biotech, “velico has spray dried plasma technology (spdptm) that enables the storage of blood as dry powder, rather than the typical freezing, for subsequent rehydration. it's expected to be useful in hospital emergency rooms, operating suites and intensive care units--as well as in a military or field hospital setting.” in july 2005, at the hearings before the committee on health, education, labor, and pensions, the first ceo and director of the center, tara o'toole, md, mph, has pointed to center's role as the "biodarpa" (i.e. "biomedical darpa"). pandemic and emerging disease responses anthrax since the 2001 anthrax attacks in the united states, barda has supported the research and development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for anthrax. therapeutics include the antibiotics xerava of tetraphase pharmaceuticals, zemdri of achaogen (rights ex-greater china bought by cipla usa) gepotidacin of glaxosmithkline and spr994 of spero therapeutics. in july 2018, spero was jointly awarded up to usd $54 million by barda and the defense threat reduction agency (dtra), in support of spr994 development. spr994 also has application to the treatment of multi-drug resistant (mdr) bacteria. barda also supported the development of the antitoxins anthrasil of cangene (march 2015 fda approval) and anthim of elusys therapeutics (march 2016 fda approval). anthrax vaccines whose development was supported by barda include biothrax (ava), av7909 of emergent biosolutions px563l of pfenex and nasoshield of altimmune. botulism botulism is caused by the botulinum toxin, one of the deadliest known toxins. while the bacteria that cause botulism occur naturally, botulism outbreaks are considered rare and unlikely by the us cdc, except as the result of a bioterrorism attack. barda maintains a supply of botulism antitoxins through the strategic national stockpile (sns). covid-19