UK's Project Melorius scrapped in favour of commercial medical countermeasure
The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has revealed that their Project Melorius, which had been intended to replace an in-service chemical and biological medical countermeasure capability, was scrapped in favour of an off-the-shelf, commercially available alternative. A sum of almost £12.6 million was subsequently written off.
In a written response to the member of parliament Ben Obese-Jecty, who was querying what the loss of £12.6 million in the Ministry of Defence's 2024-25 accounts was referring to, defence minister Luke Pollard explained that a "commercial off the shelf product became available during the development stage of the project, following changes in the commercial market".
"Project Melorius was re-evaluated and a decision was made to stop further development, with funds reinvested into procuring a commercial off the shelf solution," he added, describing the approach as "the best value for money for the taxpayer, a low-risk option and significantly reduced the delivery timescales".
"Initiated to replace an in-service capability, Melorius was a CBRN medical countermeasure project to rapidly develop and provide immediate treatment to a person exposed to a nerve agent," he said.
The minister confirmed that the £12,552,000 constructive loss was incurred during the managed closure of the programme, with the costs relating to "the safe disposal of 110,000 medical devices, a necessary up-front purchase, and the associated costs of development and testing of the products".
"In delivering the best capabilities for our Armed Forces, it is vital that we continually review the market and emerging technologies for ways to enhance our current offering, to ensure that our troops have what they need to operate effectively and the ability to respond to evolving threats," minister Pollard added.
