The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday approved an appropriation of $500,000 to establish a pandemic prevention center in Montgomery County. Pitched by local non-profit Connected DMV, the center would coordinate research and solutions that could help avoid future pandemics.
The appropriated funds are just a segment of the $2.5 million needed for the “strategy phase” of the biodefense project. Capital will go towards contractors, consultants, and legal services needed to set the plans in motion. An exploratory team is currently scouting locations for the center, which would be situated in the same county as the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration.
Besides finding a home, the proposal has an even more ambitious goal: a $2.5 billion launch project to collect monoclonal antibodies that could be deployed as treatment for future viruses.
Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Northeast DC.
