NCATS seeks new pharmaceutical assets and drug development partners this summer.

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) is now soliciting new molecular entities (NMEs) and biologics for use in the New Therapeutic Uses Drug Development Partnerships program. This collaborative program was designed to develop partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and the biomedical research community to advance therapeutics development. The program serves as a matchmaker between new ideas and technical expertise from academic researchers with a selection of pharmaceutical industry assets to test ideas for new therapeutic uses (often called drug repurposing or repositioning).

NCATS hopes to expand the Program to include additional pharmaceutical company partners, new molecular entities, and new biologics. This innovative Program will allow investigators from the biomedical research community to propose new therapeutic uses for these compounds from participating pharmaceutical company partners.

Participating companies provide clinical supplies of drugs and placebos to funded investigators. They also provide suitable documentation so funded investigators can file an Investigational New Drug application with the Food and Drug Administration.

To streamline the legal and administrative process for partnering across multiple organizations, NIH created template agreements. These agreements help facilitate complex negotiations among all parties involved in the program, enabling the research to begin in 3-4 months, instead of the typical year or more.

NCATS supported projects support proof-of-concept clinical trials to test whether the selected assets may be effective against a previously unexplored disease target.

Companies that wish to learn more about participation criteria and timelines should direct inquiries to: [email protected]

Applications are not being solicited at this time. We anticipate more public information for academic investigators late this year. However, NCATS has released the following funding opportunity announcements for our Bench-to-Clinic Initiative.

• PAR-17-465(link is external): Bench Testing Therapeutic/Indication Pairing Strategies (UG3/UH3)
• PAR-18-462(link is external): Clinical Trial Planning: Therapeutic/Indication Pairing Strategies (U34) (Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-18-332(link is external): Clinic Testing Therapeutic/Indication Pairing Strategies (U01 Clinical Trial Required)