ARMY AL&T
DELIBERATE DECISIONS POINTS Te final and most pertinent enabler for VAMP’s agility and speed is its purposeful modular contracting strategy. VAMP incorporates go/no-go decision checkpoints in each agreement throughout the development and licensure process. Te go/ no-go decision checkpoints are mutually agreed upon measures of performance between the government and the performer. Tese measures set expectations, and should a performer not meet the threshold criteria (or do so significantly behind sched- ule), the agreement may be terminated, followed by selection of a new performer.
When combined with optional work built into the agreements, VAMP is enabled to advance the development of vaccine proto- types to reach full or interim capabilities. Te flexible contracting approach employed by VAMP empowers the ability to fail smart and pivot to maintain a steady flow of technologies, or to address emergent needs related to nascent biological agents of interest.
By pursuing agreements through other transaction authori- ties, the program can carry out go/no-go decision-making and significantly reduce the risk inherent in vaccine development by pursuing those platforms showing promise and shifting away from those that require more extensive troubleshooting. Over the long term, this method will offer opportunities for a wide range of performers to prove themselves and their products while maintaining a relatively discrete program budget.
Although it may seem that a significant risk to cost and schedule remains when an agreement is terminated and a new performer selected, VAMP is deliberate in selection of performers, identify- ing those with a proven track record of manufacturing capabilities and positive evidence of prior platform use. As manufacturing is one of the most risk-intensive aspects of vaccine development, taking this focus early in performer selection mitigates much of this risk.
CONCLUSION Te VAMP program’s success is highly contingent on not just selecting performers with the most promising vaccine candidate, but those with the technology and expertise to develop vaccine platforms that fit with the goals and structure of the program. Tis will require careful vetting of performers and meticulous expectation-setting to achieve mutual benefit.
Trough interagency coordination, multiple risk-mitigation measures and creative contracting, the program aims to shift the vaccine development paradigm. Establishing prototype project
https://asc.ar my.mil 73
agreements for vaccine platform technologies while applying the system-of-systems approach allows the program to pivot and respond to emerging threats and unique requirements for warfighter use. VAMP takes an agile and “fail forward and pivot” approach to accelerate the delivery of interim and full capabilities against priority threats. Drawing from the successes and lessons learned from the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vaccine Acceleration by Modular Progression program facilitates DOD’s dedication to enhancing the warfighter’s biological body armor with a dependable layer of protection against further current and emerging biological threats.
For more information, go to
https://www.jpeocbrnd.osd.mil.
MATTHEW KUHN, PH.D., is a bioengineer supporting the VAMP program and a trained large animal veterinarian. He earned his Ph.D. in immunology, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and B.S. in animal science from Michigan State University.
EMILY CISNEY is an assistant program manager for the VAMP program and a previous medical laboratory technologist at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. She has previously served as a program manager at the Military Infectious Disease Research Program and the Armed Forces Health
Surveillance Branch’s Global Emerging Infectious
Disease Surveillance program. She earned a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a B.S. in biology from Shippensburg University.
ANDREW GLENN is the deputy joint product manager for JPEO-CBRND’s advanced defense pharmaceuticals medical countermeasure development program. He earned an M.S. in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in biotechnology from James Madison University. He holds the DAWIA Advanced certification in program management.
CONTRIBUTORS:
Lucy Ward, Ph.D., senior scientist, JPEO-CBRND Advanced Defense Pharmaceuticals (ADP); Lt. Col. Amanda Love, former joint product manager, JPEO-CBRND ADP; and Lt. Col. Patrick “Race” Dulin, joint product manager, JPEO CBRND ADP.
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