National Cancer Institute, Research Contracts Branch, ESS, Executive Plaza South, Rm. 620, 6120 Executive Blvd., MSC 7224, Bethesda, MD 20892-7224

A -- SELECTIVE ACQUISITION OF COMPOUNDS FOR ANTICANCER SCREENING SOL N02-CM-87027-55 POC Kimberly H. Doherty, Contract Specialist, 301-435-3813 WEB: Acquisition Management Branch Home Page, http://amb.nci.nih.gov/rfp.htm.. E-MAIL: Kimberly H. Doherty, kd82h@nih.gov. ELECTRONIC RFP ANNOUNCEMENT, POTENTIAL OFFERORS WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DOWNLOADING THEIR OWN COPY OF THE SOLICITATION AND AMENDMENTS. The Drug Synthesis and Chemistry Branch (DS&CB), Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP), Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD), National Cancer Institute (NCI) is responsible for the acquisition of selected novel synthetic compounds, natural products, and combinatorial libraries for evaluation as potential anticancer agents. To fulfill this responsibility, the DS&CB must provide a large number of selected compounds per year for evaluation in the anticancer testing program. In addition to the acquisition of selected synthetic compounds, natural products, and combinatorial libraries, the DS&CB is responsible for the development and implementation of compound selection criteria, management of samples and related correspondence to and from compound suppliers, and creation of the chemical database by direct input to the automated NCI Drug Information System (DIS). Continued monitoring of past and current published literature (including patents) in chemistry, biochemistry, and biology is an essential part of this project. The successful offeror will support the overall program objectives of DS&CB by accomplishing the following interrelated objectives: A. Providing the DS&CB with a suitable volume and variety of "new" chemical structures of synthetic compounds and natural products from which the DS&CB can select the ones it regards as the best candidates for evaluation in the anticancer screening program. At least 20,000 new chemical structures per year are needed from this project. These 20,000 structures per year become a major portion of the pool of structures available to DS&CB through contribution of this project, the NCI's European Liaison Office, and submissions made directly to the NCI. Selections of compounds to be acquired for screening are made only among those structures known to be "new" to the NCI automated database. Thus, the structures must be entered into a temporary file in the DIS. The staff of this project prepares the structures provided by all DS&CB structure sources for computerized selection. The number of structures at this point may be as high as 25,000 to 30,000 per year. The preparation is done by entering in the DIS the chemical structure along with specified non- structural data to identify each structure. The selection process is an evolving science performed by experienced medicinal chemists. Once the selections have been made, the contractor acquires samples of the synthetic compounds in quantities adequate for evaluation. Sample sizes of 15 to 25 mg or more of synthetics and 10 mg of pure natural products are usually required. The sample acquisitions are performed by this project using a combination of methods including field operations by the contractor and/or correspondence with potential suppliers. Reacquisition, i.e. the acquisition of samples previously tested for which larger quantities are needed for secondary evaluation, is also the responsibility of this project. This activity involves the receipt of requests for reacquisition, the gathering of facts related to the reacquisition, and initiating the correspondence to achieve the reacquisition. Part of this responsibility includes tracking these reacquisition attempts through successful reacquisition or until the decision is made to terminate the request. B. Registration of the acquired compounds into a permanent automated chemical database. "Registra tion" is the process by which each new sample to be tested by the NCI is entered into the NCI's permanent database and identified with a serial accession number, the "NSC number." Control is obtained by requiring that a fixed number of compounds (approximately 10,000) are registered per year with about 300 to 500 of the registrations being pure natural products. Since it is very important to minimize the length of time from receiving a sample to the issuance of printed screening results, it is furtherrequired to regulate the rate of registrations on a weekly basis. The goal is to keep the number of registrations made weekly as constant as possible throughout the year and still end up with the required yearly total. Maintaining the permanent database as accurately as possible will be this project's responsibility. C. Providing complete Correspondence and Record Keeping services required to maintain the overall DS&CB acquisition effort. D. For literature surveillance, utilize a very broad base of past and current primary literature sources, published abstract services, and online information systems to continually monitor published works (including patents) in chemistry, biochemistry, and biology. The contractor's facilities must be suitably located to provide uninterrupted flow of daily services required by the project. These include (1) a minimum of one round trip to the DS&CB offices in Rockville, MD; (2) coordinating the transfer of incoming samples with appropriate documents to the storage and distribution contractor (currently located in the Rockville, MD area); and (3) the transfer of program-related materials (documents, structures, computer-generated output, samples, etc.) Within the NCI facilities. It is anticipated that a single, incrementally funded, cost-reimbursement, completion contract will be awarded for a period of five years. The RFP may be accessed through the Research Contracts Branch Home Page by using the following Internet addresses: http://amb.nci.nih.gov/rfp.htm. It is the offerors responsibility to monitor the above internet site for the release of this solicitation and amendments, if any. POTENTIAL OFFERORS WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DOWNLOADING THEIR OWN COPY OF THE SOLICITATION AND AMENDMENTS. Point of contact: Kimberly H. Doherty; Electronic mail address: kd82h@nih.gov; Fax 301-402-6699. No collect calls will be accepted. Posted 08/19/98 (W-SN238953). (0231)

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