Three Funding Opportunity Announcements from the NIH

© Photo Courtesy of NICHD

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have three new funding opportunity announcements pertaining to contraceptive development. Brief descriptions of each and links to more information are provided below.

Drug Transport Across the Blood-Testis and Blood-Epididymal Barriers (R61/R33) due in November 2019, and November 2020

This exploratory and developmental phase award is designed to encourage in-vivo research on the chemical features that enable non-native molecules to pass across the blood-testis and/or the blood-epidydimal barriers. Current validated male contraceptive targets are localized and do not reach full systemic circulation due to the semi-permeable nature of these barriers. As such, this research could help to achieve systemic circulation. 

Biological Testing Facility Access for Contraceptive Development (X01) due December 2019 and May 2020

This award offers access to the NICHD’s Biological Testing Facility in order to advance non-hormonal contraception development. The facility has the capacity for preclinical and Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) or Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies. The primary goal of this award is to enable an IND/IDE study of a preclinical candidate that acts non-hormonally.

Next Generation Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (R01) due May 2020 and May 2021

This Research Project Grant seeks to enable the development of multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs) that prevent pregnancy and HIV infection, or pregnancy and STI infection. This award may be used for pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, safety, and drug-drug interaction studies as well as formulation science supported by animal model testing. It can also support biobehavioral studies that identify user-desired factors of potential MPTs.