MEASUREMENT AND TREATMENT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ON COGNITION IN 
SCHIZOPHRENIA 

Release Date:  March 11, 2002

NOTICE:  NOT-MH-02-003

RFP-NIMH-02-DM-0006

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
 (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/)

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has issued Request for 
Proposals (RFP) No. NIMH-02-DM-0006 entitled "Measurement and Treatment 
Development Activities on Cognition in Schizophrenia" under Full and Open 
Competition procedures using North American Industry Classification System 
541720.  NIMH seeks the support of a Contractor who will:

(1) Design and conduct a comprehensive survey to explore the feasibility of 
NIMH entering into agreements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies 
to obtain access to compounds and/or compound libraries with the aim of 
identifying New Chemical Entities (NCEs) of potential utility to enhance 
cognition in schizophrenia.

(2) Develop a comprehensive list of lead compounds potentially accessible for 
government/industry collaborative development.

(3) Based on face-to-face interviews with key industry decision makers, 
define approaches to management of intellectual property issues bearing on 
government/industry collaboration that would impact NIMH"s ability to 
negotiate access to a compound for collaborative development and/or human 
clinical trials.

(4) Arrange and chair industry/government/academic consensus-oriented 
conferences regarding state-of-the-art measurement methods, experimental 
designs, conflict of interest and intellectual property issues, and 
pharmacological agents of potential utility in remedying cognitive deficits 
in schizophrenia.

(5) Prepare/author one or more reports for the Schizophrenia Bulletin that 
focus on some or all of the following substantive issues:  a) review of major 
neuropharmacological approaches to modulation of cognition and working memory 
in schizophrenia with emphasis on potential translation implications of 
pharmacological circuit-based models to human clinical trials, b) review of 
pharmacological agents of potential utility in remedying cognitive deficits 
in human subjects with schizophrenia, c) comprehensive assessment of extant 
and experimental measures of cognition in schizophrenia, d) comprehensive 
assessment of methodological issues related to evaluating efficacy of 
augmentation strategies to remedy cognitive deficits in schizophrenia 
including selection of optimal experimental populations, management of 
differential side effect profiles of alternative agents, differentiating 
primary effect on cognition from secondary effects on other dimensions of 
schizophrenia psychopathology, e) comprehensive assessment of legal, ethical 
and intellectual property issues impacting government/industry collaboration 
to develop augmentation strategies to remedy cognitive deficits in 
schizophrenia, and f) comprehensive assessment of prospect for development of 
imaging-based biomarkers linked to efficacy in remedying cognitive deficits 
in schizophrenia.

The contractor may be required to create a new instrument that conforms to 
the specific characteristics of an optimal assessment tool for cognition, and 
establish the reliability, validity and pharmacosensitivity of such a new 
instrument.  The contractor also may be required to design and conduct a 
small proof-of-concept augmentation trial of a lead compound.

Plans are to award a contract by September 30, 2002.

RFP No. NIMH-02-DM-0006 was released on February 4, 2002 and the receipt date 
for proposals is April 4, 2002 with  an expected award date of September 30, 
2002.  The RFP may be accessed through http://www.fedbizopps.gov or the NIMH 
Contract website at http://www.nimh.nih.gov/grants/indexcon.cfm.  It is the 
offeror"s responsibility to monitor the above internet sites for the release 
of this solicitation and amendments, if any.  Please note that the RFP for 
this requirement will include the Statement of Work, Deliverables, Reporting 
Requirements, Technical Evaluation Criteria, and proposal preparation 
instructions.  All information required for the submission of an offeror will 
be contained in the electronic RFP package.  Following proposal submission 
and the initial review process, offerors comprising the competitive range 
will be requested to provide additional documentation to the Contracting 
Officer.  All responsible sources are encouraged to submit a proposal that 
will be considered by the NIMH.

This announcement does not commit the Government to award a contract.

INQUIRIES

For further information, contact Suzanne Stinson, Contracting Officer, at 
301-443-4116 or [email protected]. 
Collect calls will not be accepted.

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