The “new” antidote is an old drug - midazolam - the same, powerful sedative used in everything from anesthesia to lethal injection. Now, just as the reality of chemical weapon use has re-emerged, the first new nerve gas treatment developed through Project BioShield is at the final stages of a long testing and approval process. The standard therapy for both of those poisons is the same three-drug cocktail that's been available since the 1990s. Last week's sarin attack in Syria, as well as February's assassination of North Korea's Kim Jong Nam with VX, served as grim reminders that the threat hasn't gone away.

To spur pharmaceutical companies to develop new and improved drugs, despite their limited profitability, Congress passed Project BioShield, a multibillion-dollar program that's helped fund more than a decade's worth of research and development. government began stockpiling drugs that could be used as antidotes for deadly nerve agents.

11, the anthrax attacks, and the rumors of chemical weapons in Iraq - the U.S.

Antidote midazolam