A new funding opportunity from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Partnerships for Countermeasures Against Select Pathogens, will support preclinical development of lead candidate therapeutics, vaccines, and related countermeasures against select emerging infectious diseases and pathogens, including coronavirus.
The call for proposals encourages a broad array of preclinical activities including lead optimization, efficacy testing, safety evaluation, stability testing, manufacturing, scale-up, and investigational new drug-enabling activities.
Therapeutics
The funding encourages preclinical development of candidate therapeutics against select pathogens (antimicrobial resistant bacteria or fungi listed in CDC’s report Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2019 or emerging viral pathogens (listed in NIAID Emerging Infectious Diseases and Pathogens). This includes immune-based and host-targeted forms, with emphasis on broad-spectrum therapeutics and those targeting pathogens for which no standard clinical treatment exists or for which drug resistance poses a significant public health concern.
Therapeutics of interest include small molecules, biopharmaceuticals, nucleic acids, or peptides to be used as monotherapy or in combination, or as adjunctive therapy, with other drugs.
Vaccines
This opportunity supports research developing candidate vaccines (including immunoprophylactics) focusing on multivalent/universal forms or vaccines targeting select emerging pathogens—antimicrobial-resistant bacteria or fungi or viral pathogens.
Industry Partner
Applications from academic institutions must include substantive investment from an industry participant to facilitate appropriate and validated product development activities. The industry partner can be a large or small, domestic or foreign, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, bioengineering, or chemical company, or a related non-profit entity with an established track record in product development. The FOA describes activities and contributions that would constitute appropriate investment by the industrial partner.
Through this initiative, NIAID plans to fund 10 to 15 awards. Applications are due on June 29, 2020.
