While workers in gold mines or laboratories, for example, may experience long-term health problems from repeated exposure to lower levels of cyanide, a fast-acting antidote is most important for disasters that suddenly expose victims to high concentrations of the chemical, such as through a chemical attack, building fires (where smoke inhalation brings cyanide into the body), or an industrial accident.Įvery second counts in these cases, and fast treatment can mean the difference between life and death. “It is clear that Windgap has the technology to develop such a device.” “We have long recognized that a device to deliver a cyanide antidote as rapidly and easily as epinephrine would be extremely useful,” Patterson said.
While the US Department of Homeland Security identifies cyanide among the highest priority chemical threats, Steven Patterson, PhD, a professor in the CDD, said current antidotes aren’t well-suited for use in situations where many people are exposed to the chemical at once. The project is funded by a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s CounterACT program, which aims to prepare countermeasures against chemical threats that have the potential to be used as weapons. Researchers from the Center for Drug Design (CDD), College of Pharmacy, and Windgap, a Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company, are working together to develop an autoinjector that can be used on-scene to deliver a fast-acting antidote to cyanide victims.
A new collaboration between the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Windgap Medical aims to give first responders the edge in saving victims of cyanide poisoning.
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