US spends $290m on anti-radiation drugs
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President Joe Biden
The US government has purchased a significant supply of radiation-injury drugs as the Russian president threatened the use of nuclear weapons, Lizzie Roberts and Jamie Johnson write.
A $290 million procurement of the drug Nplate, to treat acute radiation syndrome (ARS), was announced by the US Health and Human Services (HSS).
The government confirmed it was the first purchase of the drug, manufactured by the California pharmaceutical company Amgen.
The purchase comes after Vladimir Putin renewed his threat of nuclear war. In a speech last month he vowed to use “all the means at our disposal” to protect Russia and its people. “This is not a bluff,” he said.
Ukraine could retake Crimea if it continues to recapture territory from fleeing Russian forces at its current rate, senior US military officials believe
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, acknowledged battlefield setbacks for the first time and Ukrainian troops pursued the Russian army into the Luhansk region, reversing one of the Kremlin’s key gains of the war
Laura Cooper, US deputy assistant secretary of defence, said US weapons could be used to strike Crimea – a move the Kremlin has described as “extremely dangerous” and “evidence of direct US involvement in the conflict”
Putin signed a bill formalising Russia’s “annexation” of Luhansk and three other Ukrainian regions on Wednesday
He also ordered Russia’s state nuclear monopoly to take over the running of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
The US government has purchased a significant supply of radiation-injury drugs as the Russian president threatened the use of nuclear weapons
