NADP vouchers for accelerating R&D of new antibiotics and alternatives

Last month the Netherlands Antibiotic Development Platform (NADP) launched a novel funding opportunity during the NADP Voucher Event. The NADP Vouchers support researchers and small- or medium-sized enterprises to bring their novel antibiotics and alternatives a step closer to the clinic. Applications can be submitted throughout the year. The upcoming collection date for application is September 1, 2018. The budget available is approximately € 450,000 for the period 2018-2020.

One of the important objectives of the Netherlands Antibiotic Development Platform (NADP) is to increase the productivity of research and development for new antibiotics and alternatives. The NADP aims to achieve this goal by encouraging cooperation between public and private parties and by identifying new ‘leads’ for the development of new antibiotics or alternative therapeutics in an early phase. To promote the accelerated development of promising ‘leads’, the NADP has developed a financing instrument specifically for this purpose: the NADP Vouchers. The vouchers can be utilised in various phases of the drug development process to obtain advice and intensive supervision of (research) projects by independent consultants or consultancy organisations that have specific knowledge and expertise pertinent to the pharmaceutical development process and clinical applications. The options vary from lead identification and optimisation, patent applications, and market analysis to pre-clinical drug development.

The NADP Voucher financing instrument includes three types of vouchers:

• Intellectual Property Vouchers of up to € 5,000 for independent advice on legal support. Vouchers can be used for freedom-to-operate analyses, filing of patent application and other relevant legal support activities;
• Value Proposition Vouchers of up to € 15,000 for independent advice on valorisation options for a new lead. Vouchers can be used for market analyses, drawing up a business plan and/or product development plan, including the development of a target product profile (TPP);
• Lead Development Vouchers of up to € 50,000 for an independent advice, guidance, and execution of a project for the identification, selection and/or validation of a lead compound. Vouchers can be used for lead formulation, selection and optimisation, ADME / DMPK, and toxicology studies.