2021.11.06 - FY22 BAA 111021.pdf

FDABAA-22-00123

Overview Information Agency Name: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993

Issuing Office: Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Office of Acquisitions & Grants Service, 4041 Powder Mill Rd. Beltsville, MD 20705

Research Opportunity Title: Food and Drug Administration Broad Agency Announcement for the Advanced Research and Development of Regulatory Science

Announcement Type: Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

Eligible Applicants: This BAA is open to ALL responsible sources and Small Businesses are strongly encouraged to respond. Offerors may include single entities or teams from private sector organizations, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) (see page 4 for FFRDC eligibility requirements) and academic institutions.

Research Opportunity Description: The FDA solicits for advanced research and development proposals to support regulatory science and innovation. The FDA anticipates that research and development activities awarded under this BAA will serve to advance scientific knowledge to accomplish its mission to protect and promote the health of our nation.

Types of instruments that may be awarded: Procurement Contracts Only [Not Grants]

Notes: Regarding Funding

In order to ensure enough time to conduct the two-tiered evaluation described in Section IV and still be considered for an award within the current fiscal year, prospective Offerors are encouraged to submit Stage One Submittal Packages (i.e., Cover Page, Quad Chart, White Paper and Research Area of Interest alignment, R&D justification ) no later than 5:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time, January 21, 2022, and earlier if possible. Stage One Submittal Packages received after that date will still be accepted, but due to a lack of lead time, will not be considered for award in FY22.

Notice and Disclosure Regarding Incomplete/Nonconforming Stage One Submittal Packages: All Stage One Submittal Packages received in response to this announcement must be complete and comply with all instructions provided herein (Note: Part III: Proposal Preparation and Submission must be considered, it lays out the details of what is included in Stage I and Stage II package). The FDA reserves the right to reject (or otherwise give no further consideration to) any packages that are found to be (1) missing any pertinent information, (2) submitted in a nonconforming format, or

(3) otherwise require exchanges with offerors for the FDA to complete its evaluation due to patent or latent ambiguities contained within the submittal.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Part I: Research Areas of Interest

Part II: Reporting Requirements and Deliverables

Part III: Proposal Preparation and Submission

Section 1: The Application Process

Section 2: Stage 1 Quad Chart and White Paper

Section 3: Quad Chart and White Paper Submission

Section 4: Stage 2 Full Proposal Preparation

Section 5: Full Proposal Submission

Section 6: General Information

Part IV: Proposal Evaluation

Award Decision

Part V: Attachments

Attachment 1: Summary of Related Activities

Attachment 2: Government Notice for Handling Proposals

Attachment 3: Quad Chart and White Paper Format Template

Attachment 4: Research and Development Justification

INTRODUCTION

Advancing Regulatory Science and Innovation

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), which sets forth research areas of interest for Food and Drug Administration, is issued under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 35.016(c). The purpose of this BAA is to provide a mechanism by which FDA can utilize industry’s and academia’s capabilities to advance the state of the art and achieve improvements in technology, materials, processes, methods, devices, or techniques in specific topics as described in this document. Proposals selected for award are the result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provision of Public Law 98-369, "The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984" and subsequent amendments.

The FDA protects and promotes the health and safety of all Americans through enhancing the availability of safe medical products and foods and promoting innovation that addresses unmet medical and public health needs. FDA also protects and promotes the health and safety of animals through assuring the availability of safe animal drug products and food. Since 2009, FDA has worked to reduce the harm from all regulated tobacco products. FDA is a science- based regulatory agency and a critical component to the success of the nation’s public health, health care systems, and economy. FDA was created in 1906 as one of our nation’s principal consumer product protection agencies and is now responsible for assuring the safety of all FDA regulated products.

In the US, FDA-regulated products account for about 25 cents of every dollar spent by American consumers each year on products that touch the lives of every American daily. FDA is responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make foods safer and make medicines, biologics, and devices safer and more effective. At the same time, FDA helps consumers and health care providers get the accurate and science-based information they need to make the best possible decisions about their use of medical products and foods. FDA is working to protect Americans from tobacco-related death and disease. FDA must make decisions based on the best available scientific data and using the best tools and methods available to ensure products meet the highest quality standards for consumers, while at the same time fostering and advancing innovation in the products it regulates.

The core responsibility of FDA is to protect consumers by applying the best possible science to its regulatory activities, ranging from pre-market review of efficacy and safety of many of its regulated products to post-market product surveillance, review of product quality, regulation of product manufacture, and distribution and marketing of tobacco products. In the last few years, rapid advances in innovative science have provided new technologies to discover, manufacture, and assess novel medical products. In order to improve food safety and quality, FDA must keep pace with and utilize these new scientific advances to accomplish its mission to protect and promote the health of our nation.

The BAA is open to all responsible sources. Offerors may include single entities or teams from private sector organizations, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), and academic institutions. Non-U.S. organizations and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary nondisclosure agreements, security regulations, export control laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances.

Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government entities (e.g., Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this BAA in any capacity unless they meet the following conditions:

1. Clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is not otherwise available from the private sector.

2. Provide a letter on official letterhead from their sponsoring organization citing the specific authority establishing their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and their compliance with the associated sponsoring agreement and terms and conditions.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Minority Institutions (MI), Small Business concerns, Small Disadvantaged Business concerns, Women-Owned Small Business concerns, Veteran-Owned Small Business concerns, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business concerns, and HUB Zone Small Business concerns are encouraged to submit proposals and to join other entities as team members in submitting proposals.

The purpose of this BAA is to solicit proposals that focus on one or more of the following areas of interest as listed below and further described in Part I of this announcement.

Research Areas of Interest:

1. Modernize Toxicology to Enhance Product Safety

2. Stimulate Innovation in Clinical Evaluations and Personalized Medicine to Improve Product Development and Patient Outcomes

3. Support New Approaches to Improve Product Manufacturing and Quality

4. Ensure FDA Readiness to Evaluate Innovative Emerging Technologies

5. Harness Diverse Data through Information Sciences to Improve Health Outcomes

6. Implement a New Prevention-Focused Food Safety System to Protect Public Health

7. Facilitate Development of Medical Countermeasures to Protect Against Threats to U.S. and Global Health and Security

8. Appy Social and Behavioral Science to empower Patients and Consumers, enhance FDA’s Understanding of its Audiences and Aid Decision-making about Regulated Products

9. Strengthening the Global Product Safety Net

Multiple awards are anticipated. The amount of resources made available for individual contract awards under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. All funding is subject to government discretion and availability.

The Government reserves the right to select for negotiation all, some, one, or none of the proposals received in response to this solicitation, and to make awards without discussions with proposers. The Government also reserves the right to conduct discussions if it is later determined to be necessary. If warranted, portions of resulting awards may be segregated into pre-priced/severable options.

Additionally, FDA reserves the right to accept proposals in their entirety or to select only portions of proposals for award. In the event FDA desires to award only portions of a proposal, negotiations may be opened with that proposer. The Government reserves the right to fund proposals in phases with options for continued work at the end of one or more of the phases.

To be eligible for award, a prospective recipient must meet certain minimum standards pertaining to financial resources, ability to comply with the performance schedule, prior record of performance, integrity, organization, experience, operational controls, technical controls, technical skills, facilities, and equipment.

This BAA is available on www.beta.sam.gov using Keyword Search “FDABAA-22-00123.”

http://www.beta.sam.gov/

This BAA is a continuously open announcement valid throughout the period from the date of issuance through the closing date specified in the www.beta.sam.gov announcement. Amendments to this BAA, if necessary, will be posted in the same site when they occur. Interested parties are encouraged to periodically check the website for updates and amendments.

Part I: Research Areas of Interest

Through this BAA, FDA seeks to support advanced research and development strategies with potential for regulatory application in the following research areas of interest. This section presents the technical objectives that FDA seeks to achieve through this BAA. Because resources are limited, preference will be given to projects geared towards developing new tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of all FDA-regulated products. Offerors should propose a Statement of Work (SOW) that is consistent with research and development work as defined in FAR

35.001. Proposal preparation and submission instructions are contained in Part III.

1. Modernize Toxicology to Enhance Product Safety FDA seeks to improve the toxicologic and pharmacologic tools used to minimize risk and evaluate product safety and efficacy by conducting internal and collaborative research and development.

Areas of interest include:

1.1 Develop better models of human and animal (where applicable) adverse response

1.1.1. Evaluate and promote the use of cell- and tissue-based assays that more accurately represent human susceptibility than animal models to adverse reactions (e.g. primary lung cells grown at an air liquid interface or lung-on-a-chip model)

1.1.1.1. Predict threshold of toxicological concerns resulting from exposure to Electronic

Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) aerosols and other new and emerging tobacco products or their constituents;

1.1.2. Understand the effect of tobacco product characteristics on addiction and abuse liability across populations. Priorities for addiction include: correlation of ENDS use behaviors with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics effects of nicotine and other Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents (HPHCs) delivered by ENDS; and the relationship between specific flavor categories in ENDS (including, but not limited to, tobacco, menthol, fruit, and sweet/dessert) and adult users’ interest in cessation as well as quit attempts, reduced cigarette use and/or switching to potentially less harmful tobacco products;

1.1.3. Develop new animal models that better mimic diseases to better understand the potential influence of disease progression and risk factors, including disease co-morbidities on the emergence of adverse events;

1.1.4. Promote a better understanding of toxicity mechanisms by evaluating safety assessment data at multiple levels of biological organization including genes, proteins, pathways, and cell/organ function;

1.1.5. Assess and characterize molecular targets, host genetic and inflammatory factors that may be associated with rare and unexpected adverse events (“off-target” drug effects);

1.1.6. Develop new methods that can assess toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of nicotine across different routes of exposure and its contribution to cancer and non-cancer toxicological risk;

1.1.7. Develop methods for biocompatibility and toxicological risk assessments for new device materials In line with 21st Century Cures Least Burdensome measures and the reduction in the use of animals;

http://www.beta.sam.gov/

1.1.8. Develop methods that facilitate the use of cell- and tissue-based assays that more accurately assess human adverse response to ingredients in dietary supplements;

1.1.9. Develop computational modeling and simulation methods to promote the use of in-silico assessment of devices and materials;

1.1.10. Develop computational tools and models to predict immunogenicity for biologic products including modified sequences for mitigation of immunogenicity risk.

1.2 Identify and evaluate biomarkers and endpoints that can be used in non-clinical and clinical evaluations:

1.1.1. Evaluate the accuracy (specificity and sensitivity) with which animal models and in-vitro assays better predict potential human and animal risk, both overall and/or in sub-populations;

1.1.2. Evaluate critical toxicity mechanisms and modes of action for key constituents of ENDS and other new and emerging tobacco products, including HPHCs that drive cancer and non-cancer toxicological risk;

1.1.3. Assess concordance between animal and human biomarkers of toxicity and determine how the performance of these biomarkers and their interpretation may vary across different organ systems and human populations;

1.1.4. Investigate precision medicine and biomarkers for predicting medical device performance, disease diagnosis and progression;

1.1.5. Evaluate the biomarkers and the role of the microbiome in contributing to adverse responses through alterations in metabolism or other mechanisms.

1.3 Develop and Use computational methods and in silico modeling

1.3.1. Develop clinical trial simulation models that can reveal interactions between drug or device effects, patient characteristics, and disease variables influencing outcomes;

1.3.2. Develop innovative models for effectively extrapolate in vitro exposure levels that cause toxicological response to in vivo adverse effects for the assessment of human health risk resulting from exposure to ENDS and other new and emerging tobacco products or their constituents;

1.1.3. Develop computer models of cells, organs, and systems (including the impact of hormones) to predict product risk, safety and efficacy;

1.1.4. Develop computational models to evaluate regulated-product toxicity or the safety and efficacy during pregnancy;

1.1.5. Develop computer models that integrate pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, materials science, or mechanistic safety data to predict clinical risk and corroborate post-market findings in different patient populations;

1.1.6. Develop and apply data mining, knowledge building, and data visualization tools to inform computer model development, clinical risk prediction, and regulatory decision- making;

1.1.7. Develop computer models of cells, organs, and systems to predict risk and safety of ingredients in dietary supplements, including potential interactions with drugs and other dietary supplements;

1.1.8. Develop rare-disease clinical trial simulation models that can reveal interactions between drug or device effects, patient characteristics, and disease variables influencing outcomes, with attention to the challenges of small population and heterogeneity of patients with rare conditions.

2. Stimulate Innovation in Clinical Evaluations and Personalized Medicine to Improve Product Development and Patient Outcomes FDA seeks to develop new tools and approaches needed to catalyze the development of personalized medicine and to modernize and advance the science and conduct of clinical trials. Areas of interest include:

2.1 Develop and refine clinical trial designs, endpoints, and analysis methods

2.1.1. Refine clinical trial design and statistical methods of analysis

2.1.1.1. Refine or develop statistical clinical trial designs and data analyses methods for leveraging data from external sources such as historical studies, registries, patient-generated health data, insurance claims, electronic health records and pre-clinical studies;

2.1.1.2. Develop and validate statistical program packages for innovative clinical trial designs, and data analyses.

2.1.2. Identify and evaluate improved clinical endpoints and related biomarkers for trials in areas where optimal endpoints are lacking (e.g., efficacy and safety endpoints for osteoarthritis in humans and animals, for gene therapy, for transplant-related studies (endpoints and duration), for tumor vaccines, and for stem cell-derived therapies);

2.1.3. Develop novel trial designs and endpoints for special needs (e.g., small trials for orphan indications, designs and endpoints for pediatric trials including neonatal trials); Pilot research to assess the impact of Accelerated approval (AA), and Fast track (FT), priority review (PR), and Breakthrough (BT) designations to help assess adequacy of pre-market efficacy and safety assessments and the generalizability of the findings from smaller clinical trial populations to larger more diverse populations. The impact of incentives for the respective programs such as marketing exclusivity, priority review vouchers and the application of flexibility and scientific judgment available under existing regulations needs to be assessed. The intent is to identify factors or metrics that may further enhance drug development and safe and effective use post-approval. Approaches include:

A. Assessing the adequacy of currently available data sources to conduct appropriate analyses and tracking;

B. Identifying appropriate comparators for assessing impacts;

C. Identifying factors either common for all or particular to each expedited or breakthrough program that can assess:

2.1.3.1. Safety of the medical products in the post-approval period (e.g., higher numbers/rates of withdrawals, adverse events reported, or serious labeling changes for safety, such as a boxed warning or restricted indication),

2.1.3.2. Timelines, achievement of milestones or costs during medical product development,

2.1.3.3. Application of novel or innovative clinical trial designs and data analyses,

2.1.3.4. Clinical trial population sizes and diversity; medical product, disease, or program attributes (such as available natural history studies or registries, patient advocacy involvement, funding sources, drug, or medical device class or disease precedent),

2.1.3.5. Pricing and accessibility post-approval; and effectiveness post-approval,

2.1.3.6. In particular for orphan products, effectiveness of programs and incentives to address unmet medical needs in the rare disease population and FDA's use of flexibility for rare disease medical product development and approvals.

2.1.4. Refine the use of modeling and simulation in clinical trial design to enhance the effectiveness of clinical studies;

2.1.5. Develop practical methods to determine the absolute or comparative effectiveness of patient-matched medical products;

2.1.6. Identify and evaluate good practices of patient involvement in clinical study design and conduct;

2.1.7. Improve clinical study design and conduct to better identify and evaluate possible differences related to sex and gender, racial and ethnic minorities, and/or pediatric populations, related to FDA-regulated products;

2.1.8. Improve clinical study design and conduct to examine diseases and conditions primarily affecting women across the lifespan (e.g., pregnant, lactating, pre- and post- menopausal and older women);

2.1.9. Explore the natural history and impact of COVID-19 on women’s health across the lifespan (e.g., pregnant, lactating, pre- and post-menopausal and older women);

2.1.10. Evaluate strategies for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19 for potential sex- and gender-, racial- and ethnic minorities-, and/or pediatric- based health effects.

Explore strategies to enhance drug development for diseases and populations with limited or absent approved treatment options.

2.2. Leverage existing and future data

2.2.1. Develop quantitative models and measures of disease progression;

2.2.2. Develop natural history studies on both prevalent and rare diseases to identify disease subsets/phenotypes amenable to differential approaches for therapy or management, and possibly with novel biomarkers for their identification;

2.2.3. Utilize large, pooled clinical trial datasets to identify potential trial endpoints, explore differences in specific populations and subpopulations (e.g., stage of disease, chronic disease states, sex, gender, race and ethnicity, pediatrics, and age groups) and different subsets of diseases, improve understanding of relationships between clinical parameters and outcomes, and evaluate clinical utility of potential biomarkers;

2.2.4. Develop new tools and methodologies to harness big data and real-world data (e.g. data derived from electronic health records (EHRs); medical claims and billing data; data from product and disease registries; patient-generated data, including from in- home-use settings; and data gathered from other sources that can inform on health status, such as mobile devices, wearables or digital heath technologies) to support regulatory decision-making;

2.2.5. Survey existing and develop new statistical methods for synthesizing data from various sources such as outside of US studies, historical studies, and registries;

2.2.6. Advance methodologies to generate clinical evidence from real-world data sufficient to support regulatory use:

2.2.6.1. Incorporate real world data sources in innovative clinical trial designs,

2.2.6.2. Demonstrate how clinical evidence generated from real-world data could inform randomized controlled trials for regulatory use,

2.2.6.3. Develop and validate tools and models that assess fitness of real-world data to support regulatory decision making,

2.2.6.4. Develop and validate methods to predict device performance using real-world data,

2.2.6.5. Using a collaborative approach, identify high-priority areas for development of real-world data source methodology that meet stakeholder needs,

2.2.6.6. Evaluate methods of observational study design with a focus on identifying and/or addressing sources of (methodological) bias,

2.2.6.7. Explore methodological reasons for discordant findings among randomized and observational analyses addressing the same clinical topic involving FDA- regulated products,

2.2.6.8. Advance causal inference based on real-world evidence.

2.2.7. Develop standards for data quality and data sources that increase the quality, interoperability, and usability of real-world data;

2.2.8. Design and optimize data infrastructure to facilitate information exchange and data extraction.

2.2.9. Identify, develop, and evaluate data sources and efficient techniques for data mining, data linkage, and large data set analysis that can be used to assess the safety and effectiveness of FDA-regulated products, to specifically identify women’s health issues;

2.2.10. Develop and validate a tool that uses natural language processing, machine learning or artificial intelligence to semi-automate review of medical charts to improve, expedite, and lower chart review costs;

2.2.11. Develop and improve the efficiency of signal detection/data collection methods and operations such as computable phenotype generation in support of future post-market active surveillance systems for biologics (CBER-regulated), drugs, and devices;

2.2.12. Identify and develop interfaces to access new, large medical databases such as EHR, claims, registries, and others to improve safety and effectiveness evaluations of patient subpopulations such as pediatric, elderly, rare diseases, both sexes, different genders, and racial and ethnic minorities;

2.2.13. Identify and develop access infrastructure to new regulatory quality EHR data sources that use SMART on FHIR, ISBT-128 coding for use in studying safety or effectiveness of blood, blood products, cellular products and others;

2.2.14. Develop methods and conduct studies that replicate findings of randomized controlled trials of CBER-regulated biologic products using regulatory quality real-world data for specific studies of biologic products;

2.2.15. Compare use of RWD and generation of RWE with more traditional approach methods for data collection and evidence generation.

2.3 Identify and qualify biomarkers and study endpoints

2.3.1. Identify and evaluate biomarkers to be used in the assessment of products related to conditions that affect women and identify sex differences in biomarkers related to the performance of medical products.

2.4 Facilitate antimicrobial drug development and address antimicrobial drug resistance

Antimicrobial drug resistance is a major threat to public health. FDA’s roles in combatting antimicrobial drug resistance is to: (1) facilitate the development of new antibacterial, antifungal drugs to treat patients and (2) advance the science of clinical trial design. FDA is interested in the following topic areas:

2.4.1. Evaluate potential innovations in clinical trial design for new drugs such as enrollment strategies, data collection streamlining, drug development tools, clinical endpoints, and new statistical analytic approaches;

2.4.2. Advance the science of in vitro, animal model, pharmacokinetic studies, and/or real- world evidence studies to facilitate drug development, including studies focused on antimicrobial resistance and drug development for special populations such as patients with unmet need, children and patients with renal or hepatic dysfunction;

2.4.3. Evaluate strategies to enrich enrollment in clinical trials for new drugs such as the use of rapid diagnostic tests;

2.4.4. Advance the science of antibacterial drug susceptibility testing to ensure that up to date susceptibility testing criteria (breakpoints) are available for patient care and antimicrobial stewardship. For example, provide updated data from microbiologic surveillance studies, pharmacokinetic studies, including modeling, and/or clinical outcome data to support updating susceptibility test interpretive criteria for certain antibacterial drugs that are a high public health priority.

For more background, see https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-research-cder/office-infectious-diseases-research-activities.

2.5 Stimulate Innovation in Clinical Evaluations and Personalized Medicine to Improve

Outcomes in Diverse Populations

2.5.1. Identify methods to improve data collection in clinical trials for racial and ethnic minorities, as well as rural and underserved populations (rural, elderly);

2.5.2. Identify develop and evaluate data sources and efficient techniques for data mining, data linkage, and large data set analysis that can be used to assess the safety and effectiveness of FDA-regulated products among racial and ethnic minorities and underserved populations;

2.5.3. Foster and assess the development of racially and ethnically appropriate clinical outcome assessments and biomarkers to better understand health inequities and develop improved medical products.

2.6 Immuno-oncology

OCE is particularly interested in supporting research to improve understanding of atypical response patterns observed in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), to develop endpoints that further development of cancer immunotherapy and cancer immunotherapy combination regimens, and to identify and characterize patients with resistance to cancer immunotherapy. Additional background information related to these around of interest maybe found here: https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center-excellence/oce-scientific-collaborative)

2.6.1. Perform analyses of clinical data to develop a better understanding of the proportion of patients with atypical response and explore the development of predictive analytics related to ICI https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-research-cder/office-infectious-diseases-research-activities https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-research-cder/office-infectious-diseases-research-activities https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center-excellence/oce-scientific-collaborative treatment;

2.6.2. Develop technologies and approaches that better predict or characterize atypical response patterns to ICI such as radiomics, circulating tumor DNA, and/or novel approaches for immune cell profiling of the micro-environment;

2.6.3. Develop clinical trial endpoints that account for atypical response patterns and more fully characterize the clinical benefit of ICI and other cancer immunotherapies;

2.6.4. Develop clinical trial designs that can help capture atypical response to ICI and other cancer immunotherapies;

2.6.5. Develop biomarkers and/or pharmacodynamic end points to demonstrate the effect of ICI in cancer immunotherapies or as part of a combination regimen;

2.6.6. Analyze RWD to understand the utilization and impact of complementary in vitro diagnostics in cancer immunotherapy;

2.6.7. Support research to improve understanding of the side effects of ICIs.

2.7 Cell/Gene and personalized neo-antigen-based therapies for cancer

OCE is interested in supporting research related to clinical development, safety, manufacturing and quality control for cell therapy and neo-antigen-based therapies for cancer, specifically to:

(Additional background information relating to these areas of interests may be found here https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center- excellence/oce-scientific- collaborative)

2.7.1. Facilitate regulatory review of neoantigen-based cancer therapies by supporting research to:

2.7.1.1. Develop, optimize and standardize algorithms for neoantigen identification. These are important to ensure the efficacy and safety of these products in the treatment of patients with cancer,

2.7.1.2. Create novel technologies and approaches to evaluate both efficacy and safety for neoantigen-based therapies that incorporate unique features of individual cancers, neoantigen and immune responses. Examples may include neoantigen-based vaccines, redirecting T-cell specificity by genetically modifying T cells with receptors specific against neoantigen-derived epitopes.

2.7.2. Implement innovative clinical trial designs for a group of cell or neoantigen-based therapies that were developed using a common platform (but target distinct antigens) to compare safety and clinical activity among products to identify the most promising candidates for further development.

2.8 Health equity and special populations in oncology drug development

OCE is interested in understanding the factors that affect the safety and treatment response in demographic subgroups that have been historically underrepresented in oncology trials (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities, older adults), specifically to:

(Additional background information relating to these areas of interests may be found at https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center-excellence/oce-scientific-collaborative)

2.8.1. Conduct qualitative research to understand barriers to including underrepresented groups in oncology clinical trials (e.g., access to clinical trial sites, patient and/or physician preference, and/or other structural, operational, or trial-specific barriers);

2.8.2. Identify best practices for enrolling underrepresented subgroups in oncology clinical trials, including patient-, physician-, and community-focused approaches to evaluate the https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center-excellence/oce-scientific-collaborative effectiveness of interventions designed to enroll diverse populations in oncology clinical trials such as digital technologies, decentralized clinical trials, patient/community/language navigators;

2.8.3. Characterize the prevalence of currently druggable biomarkers in racial/ethnic minorities and assess implications for enrollment in clinical trials;

2.8.4. Understand the impact of remote assessments and decentralized procedures (e.g., e-consent, telemedicine, collecting laboratory and/or imaging data from local facilities) on underrepresented subgroups participating in oncology clinical trials;

2.8.5. Conduct RWD studies to improve understanding of safety and efficacy of drugs in underrepresented groups such as analyses of low-grade toxicities, symptom function measures, and co-morbidities;

2.8.6. Study RWD to understand patterns of care and clinical outcomes in sexual and gender minorities with cancer;

2.8.7. Develop framework for assessing clinical site readiness to achieve adequate enrollment of participants from historically under-represented racial/ethnic subgroups in therapeutic oncology clinical trials.

2.9 Oncology trial designs, end points and statistical methodologies

Additional background information relating to these areas of interests may be found at

2.9.1. Develop novel statistical approaches for using external controls in oncology trials, which could supplement concurrent control arm data and address key challenges such as differences in eligibility criteria, exposure, and outcomes between external control and clinical trial patients; bias, and rapidly evolving standards of care;

2.9.2. Multi-disciplinary research that includes expert clinical and statistical input addressing how external control data can be used to isolate the treatment effect of experimental combination therapies;

2.9.3. Develop, define and test real world oncology endpoints from RWD that could be used to generate real world evidence (RWE) to complement traditional clinical trial data submitted to FDA, particularly the development of measures of real-world response;

2.9.4. Explore and define RWD quality to consider factors including data variable collection, missingness, specificity, sensitivity, data validation, harmonization, data provenance, data linkage, and the potential capability to make accurate inferences from the available data.

2.10 Pediatric oncology

https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center- excellence/oce-scientific-collaborative

2.10.1. Development of preclinical models (e.g., patient-derived xenograft models, orthotopic mouse models, organoids) of pediatric tumors, most of which are embryonal in origin to facilitate decision-making regarding the evaluation of emerging novel agents potentially applicable to tumors which predominantly occur in the pediatric population;

2.10.2. Investigations to elucidate the relevance of specific molecular targets to the growth and/or progression of pediatric tumors to understand and assess target actionability using text mining and artificial intelligence to analyze, assess and interpret the scientific literature and other public databases of genomic and transcriptomic analyses of pediatric cancers;

2.10.3. Translational research to design and develop rational combination regimens for pediatric patients that may include immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and other treatments (e.g., https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center-excellence/oce-scientific-collaborative chemotherapy, vaccines, radiation) based on strong scientific rationale that addresses the current data suggesting lack of activity of single agent ICIs in pediatric tumors;

2.10.4. Investigations to explore opportunities to develop acceptable external control arms from using real world evidence to aid in accelerating new drug approvals for childhood cancer;

2.10.5. Development of immune based therapies (engineered immune effector cells or bifunctional activators) that recognize tumor specific altered glycan epitopes (glycolipids or glycoproteins) that NK and T-cells do not generally recognize;

2.10.6. Investigations to solicit children’s self-report of treatment related adverse events to accommodate the child’s voice in assessing patient tolerability of new drugs;

2.10.7. Evaluate (in collaboration with statistical experts) novel study designs for small populations including Bayesian approached to borrowing from adult data and relaxed type 1 error considerations to facilitate randomized trials wherever possible.

2.11 Precision oncology

https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/oncology-center- excellence/oce-scientific-collaborative

2.11.1. Develop algorithms that predict an individual patient’s genotype and/or response (in terms of efficacy and/or safety) to cancer therapy using different types of medical images including radiology images (e.g., CT, PET) and/or histopathology images combined with novel analysis approaches such radiomics and machine learning;

2.11.2 Identify biomarkers (including liquid biopsy biomarkers) to gain information related to oncology diagnosis, monitoring, response, or resistance;

2.11.3 Conduct studies to compare the performance of local and centralized molecular tests used for patient enrollment on cancer clinical trials;

2.11.4 Conduct studies to understand why tumors located at different organ sites with molecular alterations in the same target respond differently to therapies to inform future potential tumor agnostic drug development;

2.11.5 Develop methodologies to inform evidence generation (clinical trial design; use of real world data for liquid biopsy diagnostics that are assessing multiple cancer types simultaneously for early detection indications (multicancer early detection [MCED]);

2.11.6 Conduct retrospective or prospective studies/biomarker evaluations to understand if there are differences in response to targeted cancer treatment based on somatic vs. germline alterations of the target gene.

2.12 Facilitate Qualification of Biomarkers and Clinical Outcome Assessments (COAs)

Biomarker or COA qualification is a voluntary formal process where FDA can endorse the use of specific tools within a well-defined context of use, if supported by appropriate data. Once qualified, these tools become publicly available for use as part of any drug development program. Having FDA-qualified biomarkers and COAs that can be utilized by many external stakeholders helps advance the science of drug development and regulatory review. FDA is interested in the following topic areas:

2.12.1. Advance clinical validation of biomarkers and COAs that can provide objective measures to replace or compliment subjective classifications of disease diagnosis or progression;

2.12.2. Advance biomarker and clinical tool validation to reduce disease heterogeneity in clinical trials by refining clinical disease classification or inform reproducible patient stratification based on risk factors in therapeutic areas with unmet need;

2.12.3. Evaluate strategies for validation of innovative biomarkers or clinical tools that offer a sensitive and specific reflection of the pathophysiologic state for progressive diseases with unmet need;

2.12.4. Advance development of COAs for advancing drug development in areas of unmet needs;

2.12.5. Evaluate strategies for validation of innovative COAs for use in drug development;

2.12.6. Evaluate strategies for assessment of innovative non-biomarker non-COA drug development tools that offer a sensitive and specific reflection of pathology or treatment responses.

For more background see the following links:

Biomarker Qualification Program | FDA Clinical Outcome Assessment (COA) Qualification Program | FDA https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-development-tool-ddt-qualification-programs/innovative-science-and-technology-approaches-new-drugs-istand-pilot-program

3. Support New Approaches to Improve Product Manufacturing and Quality

FDA seeks to support the application of novel technologies to product development and innovative analytical approaches to improve product manufacturing and quality through active research.

Areas of interest include:

3.1 Enable development and evaluation of novel and improved materials and manufacturing methods:

3.1.1. Investigate the effects of advanced manufacturing on product quality. Proposals could include research on technologies and materials that:

3.1.1.1. Result in manufacturing technology, tools, or approaches that enhance control of critical quality attributes for drug substances or products,

3.1.1.2. Improve manufacturing capabilities for complex drugs and biologics,

3.1.1.3. Outcome can include, but is not limited to, trainings on the methods.

3.1.2. Examine specific novel material and manufacturing technologies to determine how they impact product failure rates; Evaluate complex drug substances and complex drug product dosage forms, especially potential regulatory questions related to drug quality and characterization for equivalence or similarity comparison. Some specific areas of research could include: (1) appropriate analytical methods, including bioassays, for complex drug substances or products, (2) in-process controls during manufacturing processes to ensure product quality, and (3) raw material quality control;

Proposals should clearly describe the potential impacts of the proposed enabling technology on readiness for broad implementation in pharmaceutical industry, control strategy, and/or regulatory evaluation for complex drug substances and complex drug product dosage forms, including natural products;

Develop improved methods and tools to detect and measure the physical structure, chemical properties, and biological behavior of engineered nanomaterials, additively manufactured pharmaceuticals (pharmacoprinted products), biological products (e.g., therapeutic proteins or monoclonal antibodies) and complex dosage forms (e.g., transdermal patches, inhalation delivery systems, and targeted drug delivery systems) in FDA-regulated products;

3.1.3. Develop and evaluate practical in-process monitoring systems, methods, and metrics for advanced manufacturing processes including additive manufacturing, process intensification until operations, or adaptive and automation operations;

3.1.4. Develop and evaluate the use of model-based digitally integrated systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning and simulation in production or quality system activities.

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-development-tool-ddt-qualification-programs/biomarker-qualification-program https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-development-tool-ddt-qualification-programs/clinical-outcome-assessment-coa-qualification-program https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-development-tool-ddt-qualification-programs/innovative-science-and-technology-approaches-new-drugs-istand-pilot-program https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-development-tool-ddt-qualification-programs/innovative-science-and-technology-approaches-new-drugs-istand-pilot-program

Proposals may include but are not limited to:

3.1.4.1. Generative Design,

3.1.4.2. Production simulation and simulated process validation,

3.1.4.3. AI/ML application to quality system activities, such as, complaint management, trending, or others,

3.1.4.4. Intelligent Design Control,

3.1.4.5. Closed loop risk-management.

3.1.5. Explore novel applications of advanced (e.g., integrated and continuous) manufacturing processes for more complex biologic products, such as vaccines, and cell and gene therapies. Proposals should clearly describe the potential impact of the proposed enabling technology on process control strategy and its readiness for broad implementation in the biopharmaceutical industry . Additionally, proposals should clearly quantify the improvement metric for implementation of advanced manufacturing processes at a commercial scale as compared to traditional batch production or small-scale pilot production if relevant. Proposals may include but are not limited to:

3.1.5.1. Closed and automated manufacturing processes,

3.1.5.2. Modular manufacturing platforms with integrated in-process testing capabilities,

3.1.5.3. Process modeling and simulation,

3.1.5.4. Novel in-line and real time monitoring technologies,

3.1.5.5. Improved cell lines and improved upstream cell culture production processes for vaccine antigen manufacturing.

3.1.6. FDA intends to support research and development of innovative and advanced technologies for manufacturing mRNA-based vaccines to enhance domestic manufacturing capacity and agility for vaccines against existing and emerging pathogens with pandemic potential. Though mRNA has emerged as a powerful platform for rapid vaccine development, major hurdles remain in mRNA vaccine manufacture. FDA is requesting proposals for the design and operation of a flexible, pilot-scale, demonstration unit for the continuous manufacturing of mRNA vaccines which would enable rapid ramp-up of manufacturing capacity to quickly respond to new pandemic threats. Proposals should address the following area of interest in part or in whole:

3.1.6.1. Development and integration of process modules, including the required analytic and methodology and process control, to enable a GMP-compliant, flexible, continuous mRNA vaccine production process at the pilot-scale, that could ultimately be scaled up to become an end-to-end continuous platform technology for mRNA vaccine production.

3.1.7. Refine or enhance existing technologies to improve the sensitivity, specificity, and robustness of testing methods used to measure medical countermeasure (MCM) potency, in-process characteristics, and final drug substance characteristics (for example, in-line sensors process analytical technologies);

3.1.8. Advance broadly-applicable, commercially-ready (manufacturing readiness level {MRL} 4-

61) tools, technologies, and platforms that improve manufacturing efficiency, consistency, quality, and speed of medical countermeasures (MCMs) to bolster the MCM supply chain;

for example, “plug-and-play” modular unit operations applicable for downstream processing, or continuous manufacturing.

(additional background information relating to these areas of interests may be found at Manufacturing Readiness Levels as defined by Department of Defense:

http://www.dodmrl.com/ and further explained at: https://www.nextflex.us/wp-content/uploads/NextFlex_PC3.0_MRL-TRL_Definitions.pdf)

3.1.9. Investigate the effects in supply chain of implementing advanced manufacturing for specific types of medical products, especially such as biologics, vaccines and medical devices.

Topics may include:

3.1.9.1. Supply chain resilience to disruption,

3.1.9.2. Increased access,

3.1.9.3. Personalization,

3.1.9.4. Decreased reliance on foreign supply chains.

3.2. Develop new analytical and in vitro release methods:

3.2.1. Investigate feasibility and value of using improved analytical technologies for evaluating product quality of pharmaceutical agents and other regulated products, and evaluate whether these improved technologies should be incorporated into product assessments;

3.2.2. Evaluate applicability of various analytic technologies for determination of the “similarity” of biosimilars to their reference products;

3.2.3. Perform statistical research to support development and evaluation of new assays and tests needed to assure analytical methods give consistent reproducible results;

3.2.4. Develop patient-focused quality standards or specifications by establishing, evaluating and validating in vitro release methods (e.g., dissolution methods) that predict in vivo performance for various dosage forms (e.g., solid oral dosage forms).

3.3. Develop assessment tools to support facility and product surveillance and monitoring of quality systems and processes:

3.3.1. Advance the study of quality management maturity, including quality metrics and quality culture, supply chain oversight, inventory management, application of risk management, manufacturing operations, quality management systems, and continuous improvement in domestic and foreign establishments. Adaptable and reproducible approaches are needed to inform consistent assessment of robustness of a manufacturer’s quality management maturity. Develop methods for data collection, validation, and assessment of appropriate and robust metrics;

3.3.2. Advance statistical methodology, including data mining and machine learning, for assessing disparate data types and sources in the evaluation of products, manufacturing facilities and quality systems and processes to support post-market quality surveillance programs;

3.3.3. Develop and evaluate methods for prioritizing quality defect report assessment, surveillance sampling, and surveillance inspection scheduling;

3.3.4. Develop and evaluate methods for estimating the state of quality for products and facilities that enable…