HIV Microbicides and Biomedical Prevention 2016-2021

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health established a Master IDIQ on July 15, 2016, to procure comprehensive research, development, and support services for HIV microbicides and non-vaccine biomedical prevention product development, with ordering authority that closed on July 14, 2023. The vehicle is no longer active for new task order placement.

Over its seven-year ordering window, NIAID awarded 29 task orders totaling $35.7 million in combined potential value, of which $21.4 million (60 percent) has been obligated. Ordering activity peaked in 2017 with nine awards and declined thereafter; the final task order was placed in September 2022. All 29 orders remain unrestricted competitive procurements, with no set-aside designations.

Advanced Bioscience Laboratories, Inc. captured 26 of 29 awards worth $35.2 million in combined potential value—roughly 99 percent of vehicle activity. Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute received two orders ($490 thousand combined potential), and Sri International received one order ($25 thousand). The vehicle serves a single customer: NIAID's Division of AIDS (DAIDS), which placed all orders.

Awarded task orders span preclinical and nonclinical research services supporting candidate HIV prevention product development. Representative work includes nonhuman primate purchase and holding ($8.7 million ceiling), pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characterization studies in rhesus macaques, drug substance characterization for vaginal ring formulations, bioanalytical method validation, statistical and pharmacometric modeling, quality assurance and regulatory consultation, ethnographic research on study drug adherence, and development of product positioning and messaging for sub-Saharan African populations. All task orders use cost-plus-fixed-fee pricing. Obligation rates on individual orders range from 23 percent to 100 percent, reflecting a mix of multi-year performance extensions and completed work.

The vehicle's narrow prime contractor base and single-customer structure, combined with the closing of the ordering window in July 2023 and declining award pace in 2022, indicate limited new opportunity under this vehicle.

The development of highly effective HIV prevention strategies, including a preventive vaccine and other non-vaccine biomedical prevention (nBP) products, remains one of the highest priorities for the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). With current global HIV infection estimates exceeding 33 million people, the development of safe, effective, and acceptable nBP products to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV could play a major role in the worldwide reduction of the estimated 5000 new HIV infections per day.