The Department of Health and Human Services has assigned the NIH the responsibility to identify, characterize, and develop new medical countermeasures against radiological or nuclear threats. Only a few such countermeasures currently exist. As part of the ?NIH Strategic Plan and Research Agenda for Medical Countermeasures against Radiological and Nuclear Threats?, the NIAID awarded the Medical Countermeasures Against Radiological Threats: Product Development Support Services contract to provide support services for products that may have the potential to become radiation or nuclear medical countermeasures. The contract is tasked with bringing these potential countermeasures to a point at which they can be approved or licensed by the FDA, thus making them available to be acquired by the Strategic National Stockpile
