The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research established the Grand Challenge for Neurotherapeutics in response to the paucity of effective treatments for disorders of the nervous system. This program intends to develop drugs successfully through clinical Phase I and facilitate industry partnerships for their full development. The long-term goal of this grand challenge is to produce at least one novel and effective medication for a disorder of the nervous system that is currently poorly treated or untreatable. Most promising compounds identified through basic research are not sufficiently drug-like for human testing. Before a new chemical entity can be tested in a clinical setting, it must undergo a process of chemical optimization to improve potency, activity and drug-likeness and pre-clinical safety testing to meet the standards set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical testing. These activities are largely the domain of the pharmaceutical industry and contract research organizations, and the necessary expertise and resources are not commonly available to basic researchers. To address this problem, the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is establishing a ?virtual pharma? network of contract service providers and consultants with extensive industry experience to enable drug development in the NIH neuroscience research community. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is soliciting applications for U01 cooperative agreement awards from investigators with small molecule compounds that have potential for development into clinical candidates within this network. This FOA and the Blueprint Neurotherapeutics ?virtual pharma? network is an initiative of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, which provides a framework for collaborative activities involving sixteen participating NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices that support research on the nervous system (http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/blueprint_basics/about_blueprint.htm). By pooling resources and expertise, the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research takes advantage of economies of scale, confronts challenges too large for any single Institute or Center, and develops research tools and infrastructure that serve the entire neuroscience community.
