Drug Development Infrastructure Supporting the Research Community in Medication Repurposing for Substance Use Disorders

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) seeks to advance its mission by supporting a dynamic and adaptable drug-development infrastructure to accelerate medication repurposing and repositioning for substance use disorders (SUDs). The infrastructure will serve academic and biotech investigators by providing coordinated scientific expertise, shared resources, and tailored support across the drug-development continuum. Capabilities may include in silico discovery, target and assay validation, preclinical and translational development, pharmacology, toxicology, clinical protocol development, patient engagement, Target Product Profile development, Freedom-to-Operate and intellectual property strategy, regulatory guidance, and market-access planning. The infrastructure will also engage the research community through outreach, proposal solicitation, and a structured project-selection process, supporting user-led projects across a broad range of SUD indications. The goal is to help promising repurposed and repositioned therapeutics progress toward clinical development and potential market access. Grant authorities that allow the NIDA to forecast this opportunity are as follows: 42 U.S.C. 241 and 284.