National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group Program— for Academics and Industry
http://dtp.nci.nih.gov/branches/gcob/gcob_web3.html
Contact:
Mary K. Wolpert, Ph.D.
301-496-8783, wolpertm@exchange.nih.gov
DTP’s National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group (NCDDG) program, initiated in 1983, partners NCI-funded academic researchers with private-sector organizations to fund cooperative agreements (U19s) in support of a multidisciplinary approach to the discovery of new, rationally based and natural source–derived anticancer treatments and strategies. Through funding provided under a request for applications (RFA) ( http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/ rfa-files/RFA-CA-05-001.html), which expired in May 2004, the NCDDG supports 13 multidisciplinary groups in the discovery of new anticancer drugs.
This program is one of the first examples of NCI partnering with private industry. The NCDDG program has assisted in the development of four FDA-approved anti-cancer agents: topotecan, NSC 609699 (Hycamtin®); Gliadel® Wafers, NSC 714372; denileukin diftitox, NSC 733971 (Ontak®); and cetuximab, NSC 714692 (Erbitux®). The Biological Resources Branch has been instrumental in the production of vaccines and other biologic agents, especially for NCDDGs that lacked a major industrial partner.
Although NCDDG projects do not support clinical trials, timely clinical evaluation of agents discovered through NCDDG is encouraged.
No new applications for this program are being accepted at this time.