PREVENT Preclinical Drug Development Program (PREVENT)

The National Institutes of Health established a Master IDIQ for the PREVENT Cancer Preclinical Drug Development Program on January 23, 2019, with a shared ceiling of $49.995 million and ordering closed on January 23, 2024. This vehicle is no longer active; the ordering period ended more than two years ago, and the most recent task order award dates to September 2023. The IDIQ supports three service areas: in vivo development and animal efficacy studies, preclinical biopharmaceutical product development and CGMP manufacturing, and toxicology and pharmacology testing, organized into two pools (Efficacy and Toxicology).

Forty-nine task orders totaling $43.7 million in combined potential value have been awarded under the vehicle, with $40.6 million obligated (93% of combined potential value). The program has obligated substantial capital; nearly all available value has been committed, leaving minimal room for new orders. Ordering activity peaked early—14 orders in 2019 and 12 in 2020—then declined to 7 orders per year by 2022–2023.

Competition is highly concentrated. The University of Oklahoma holds 15 orders worth $12.7 million combined potential value, and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center holds 13 orders worth $13.8 million, collectively representing the largest share of awards. The Institute for Cancer Research, IIT Research Institute, and University of Alabama at Birmingham follow with smaller portfolios; five institutions capture 90% of task orders and 96% of combined potential value. All awarded work serves the National Cancer Institute exclusively.

All 49 task orders carry no set-aside designation. Task orders are firm-fixed-price delivery orders ranging from small orientation and kick-off meetings worth under $10,000 to substantive cancer prevention studies valued between $650,000 and $1.7 million. Representative recent awards include studies of nicotine reduction therapy ($656,577), adenosine receptor targeting for pancreatic cancer immunoprevention ($1.272 million), and colorectal cancer prevention models ($1.14 million). Durations span one to three years. Place of performance reflects the academic and research institutions that hold the prime contracts, with no geographic restrictions stated in the vehicle structure.

This IDIQ supports the PREVENT Program in the areas of (1) in vivo development/animal efficacy/biomarker development, (2) preclinical product development and CGMP manufacturing of biopharmaceutical agents, and (3) toxicology/pharmacology testing.