Nitrosamines Forum to Advance Critical Translational Science (NA FACTS) - Title: Nitrosamines Forum for Advancing Critical Translational Science (NA FACTS)
FOA Title & Number: Identification and Evaluation of Possible Approaches to Addressing Nitrosamine
Impurities in Drugs (U01), RFA-FD-24-020
Project Summary
1 The Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) will address the need to implement feasible and
2 sustainable safety assessment methods that protect public health from nitrosamine (NA) risks while ensuring
3 uninterrupted access to essential medications by establishing the Nitrosamines Forum for Advancing Critical
4 Translational Science (NA FACTS). NA FACTS will form two multi-stakeholder advisory teams, each with
5 distinct tasks. One advisory team will be tasked with identifying, prioritizing and preparing a report with
6 recommendations on in vivo and in vitro research priorities for assessment of NA impurities in drugs (Specific
7 Aim 1). This advisory team may identify and initiate a select number of new projects within the existing HESI
8 Genetic Toxicology Testing Committee (GTTC) Nitrosamines Research Program (NRP) and establish a
9 competitive seed funding mechanism to catalyze a limited number of additional new programs (Specific Aim
10 3). A second advisory team will be tasked with designing and convening a workshop to assess the feasibility of
11 establishing a public-facing (Q)SAR database that builds on NA classification (Specific Aim 2). The NA FACTS
12 Principal Investigator (PI) and Key/Senior Persons will provide FDA with a report synthesizing the
13 recommendations from the prioritization exercise and the outcomes of this workshop. The summary reports
14 for Aims 1 and 2 will be publicly posted with FDA approval. Specific Aim 4 (assessment of opportunities to
15 ensure that research and practices identified in Aims 1-3 can continue following closure of the cooperative
16 agreement) will be fulfilled as a component of Aims 1-3 above. Specifically, HESI personnel will utilize the
17 networks and topical areas developed in Aims 1-3 to focus this effort. HESI personnel will also apply their
18 decades of expertise to assess and evaluate stakeholders’ interest in supporting or leading continued work
19 related to Aims 1-3 at the close of this cooperative agreement. HESI personnel will work with the NA FACTS
20 team and existing GTTC NRP to facilitate discussion of possible resource models and program mechanisms
21 that could support sustained activity (e.g., stakeholder contributions of funding or expertise/data/studies,
22 grants, etc.). HESI foresees ongoing success advancing this important work given the organization’s 35 years of
23 designing innovative scientific, resource sharing collaborations, which includes the establishment and growth
24 the GTTC NRP.