US approves new smallpox drug to block terror threat

THE US Food and Drug Authority has approved a new drug to treat smallpox that could help avert a global pandemic should the virus be released in a biological terror attack.

The antiviral, known as TPOXX, is the first drug to be approved by the US regulator for treating smallpox.

US authorities have long been concerned that smallpox could be weaponised. “To address the risk of bioterrorism, the US Congress has taken steps to enable the development and approval of countermeasures to thwart pathogens that could be employed as weapons,” Dr Scott Gottlieb, FDA Commissioner, said. “This newly approved treatment affords the US an additional option should smallpox ever be used as a bioweapon.”

The threat of chemical and biological attacks has been high on the UK agenda following the Novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, and the recent death of Dawn Sturgess and poisoning of her partner, Charlie Rowley, in Salisbury.

Smallpox was declared completely eradicated by the World Health Organisation in 1980 after a mass vaccination drive, but experts believe the virus remains a global health security threat.