US stocks up on $300m worth of radiation sickness drug - but officials insist it has nothing to do with Putin's nuke threats

 The US has stocked up on radiation sickness drugs just weeks after Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons against the West.

Officials said the deal — worth $290million — was ‘part of ongoing work’ and ‘has not been accelerated’ by the Kremlin leader's escalating rhetoric.  

The US Health and Human Services (HHS) - whose motto is to 'improve the health, safety, and well-being of America - announced the purchase of romiplostim Tuesday.

Sold under the brand name Nplate, it is used to reduce bleeding caused by acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness.

Putin issued a chilling warning late last month that he was prepared to use Russia’s nuclear arsenal to protect Ukrainian territory annexed after sham referendums.

But the US Health and Human Services (HHS) said the drug order was ‘part of ongoing work’ and ‘has not been accelerated’ by Putin’s warning.

However, the timing will likely raise questions given that this is the first time the US Government has bought Nplate.

It is unclear how many doses the order covers, but the drug normally fetches between $1,000 and $2,500 per dose.

Radiation sickness occurs when a person’s whole body is exposed to a high dose of penetrating radiation, which reaches internal organs in seconds.

It can leave people with low platelet counts, causing impaired blood clotting and leading to ‘uncontrolled and life-threatening bleeding’.

Nplate - made by California pharmaceutical company Amgen - stems bleeding by stimulating the body’s production of platelets, and can be used in both adults and children.

It can also be used to treat patients with immune thrombocytopenia, a blood condition causing low platelet counts.

The HHS said the buying of the drug was due to its ‘long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies’ and not a response to Russia’s president.

‘This is part of our ongoing work for preparedness and radiological security. It has not been accelerated by the situation in Ukraine,’ it added in a statement.

The US has kept a supply of Leukine, another drug which treats ARS, since 2013, incase of a nuclear event.

As well as Leukine and Nplate, two other drugs are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat acute radiation exposure – Amgen’s Neupogen and Neulasta.

Nplate is approved for use in Europe and the UK to treat immune thrombocytopenia, but not injuries resulting from radiation exposure.

Putin also ordered the mobilization of 300,000 military reserves - a first in Russia since the Second World War - and gave the go-ahead for referendums to be held in occupied areas of Ukraine that would make them a part of Russia, in the Kremlin's eyes at least.

In a televised statement on September 21, he vowed to use 'all means' to defend the regions, saying: 'If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use all available means to protect Russia and our people - this is not a bluff... I shall stress - by all means available to us. 

'Those trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the tables can turn on them.'

Putin's gambit came after Ukraine routed a large part of the Russian army in September, leaving him backed into a corner of his own making and facing the possible collapse of his so-called 'special military operation'.

But rather than back down, the Russian leader instead chose to double down and hold the free world to ransom - putting Russia and its huge nuclear arsenal on a direct collision course with Ukraine and its allies, who have already vowed not to accept the results of 'sham' referendums or to stop liberating occupied territory.