Anti-radiation medicine climbs another rung on the FDA ladder

Buffalo-based drug maker Cleveland Biolabs has been working on a medicine to protect against radiation poisoning for more than seven years. And this week the drug, CBLB502, took another step towards approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

If the FDA's approval process is a ladder, the medicine's recent designation as an "orphan drug" is another rung on the climb to marketing the exclusive formula. But the medicine still faces more than a year of scrutiny and development before the FDA ultimately decides whether the medicine is fit for sale.