How BPN Works: The Virtual Pharma Model

Successful applicants to the BPN receive funding for activities to be conducted in their own laboratories, no-cost access to contracted drug discovery and development services, no-cost access to drug discovery and development consultants, and they retain intellectual property rights for drug candidates developed through the BPN program.

View all the Blueprint Neurotherapeutics funding opportunities

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BPN CRO setup

The Lead Development Team (LDT) is highly collaborative in nature and is the cornerstone of the BPN’s infrastructure. The Principal Investigator and a Lead Consultant co-chair the LDT. The PI’s research team works closely with highly experienced consultants and BPN Staff, holding bi-weekly teleconferences to propose project milestones, design experiments, and review data. Decisions are made by consensus, within budgetary constraints.

Drug discovery and development services are offered through NIH-funded Contract Research Organizations (CROs) specializing in medicinal chemistry, ADME, toxicology, formulations development, GMP synthesis to enable IND-filing, and Phase I clinical testing. A UG3/UH3 or U44 grant award is provided to fund studies conducted by the Principal Investigator and associated personnel.

BPN Staff