EGC supported AstraZeneca in securing over $8 million in NIH funding to advance its first-in-class therapeutic candidate into a Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of opioid use disorders.

Client: AstraZeneca  .  Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Sector: Biopharmaceutical  .  Link: www.astrazeneca.com


As a company with 90,000 employees and $46 Billion in revenue, AstraZeneca’s R&D team is a world leader in bringing new lifesaving innovations to the market. In 2021, the AstraZeneca team began developing a new first-in-class therapeutic candidate for the treatment of opioid use disorders (OUDs), and they recognized that a partnership with the NIH would be instrumental in catalyzing the successful product development and launch. However, AstraZeneca was not familiar with the NIH cooperative agreement funding opportunity that supports the development of novel medications for the treatment of OUDs. Therefore, AstraZeneca reached out to Eva Garland Consulting (EGC) for assistance in preparing a NIH proposal.

“It was only with the support of the EGC team that we were able to accomplish this.”

– Nandini Sane, Associate Director, Global Project and Portfolio Management, AstraZeneca

To support AstraZeneca under a tight timeline, EGC assembled a team of Scientific Grants Experts who possess relevant scientific backgrounds in substance abuse disorder and drug development research, as well as experience with the targeted NIH grant mechanism. Within a span of 8 weeks, EGC’s and AstraZeneca’s teams collaborated to complete a NIH application. A few months later, the NIH indicated they intended to fund the award, and EGC supported AstraZeneca’s pre-award negotiations. The application was successful and resulted in a 5-year award of up to $15 million.

To-date, AstraZeneca has received over $8 million in grant funding through year 3 of the project, and its therapeutic candidate has now entered into a phase 2 clinical trial. EGC currently supports AstraZeneca in completing the required annual research performance and progress reports for the NIH. With an additional $7 million in NIH funding support in the upcoming years, AstraZeneca plans to fast-track its novel drug candidate to treat OUDs and advance it to FDA approval.

The success of this project has the potential to make a huge impact in our battle against the opioid overdose epidemic in the United States.

$15M

Non-dilutive funding awarded

+3

Years as EGC client