The U.S. Food & Drug Administration announced June 19 an open period for applications for grants to support the development and approval or conditional approval of new animal drugs intended to treat uncommon diseases (minor uses) in major species — horses, dogs, cats, cattle, pigs, turkeys and chickens — or to treat minor species.

The individual award amount has been increased to a single funding level of up to $250,000, FDA said.

Only animal drug sponsors with designated minor uses/minor species (MUMS) animal drugs or their research partners are eligible to apply, FDA said, noting that applicants must also meet other eligibility requirements.

The agency explained that the Minor Use & Minor Species Animal Health Act of 2004 provides innovative ways to bring products to market for these small populations and is designed to help veterinary pharmaceutical companies and others overcome the financial roadblocks they face in providing animal drugs for a limited market. Before this legislation, veterinary pharmaceutical companies and others would rarely attempt to bring such drugs to market.

Grants awarded through the MUMS program support FDA’s continuing mission to assure that safe and effective animal drugs are available for a broad range of species and conditions. MUMS grants have been awarded to support product development for a wide variety of indications. They have funded many studies for products to treat fungal and bacterial diseases in various fish species, a few for treatment of cancers in dogs and some to support development of drugs for horses, pheasants and goats.

To date, the MUMS grant program has provided more than $4.8 million in support of 61 studies, FDA said. In May 2020, FDA awarded four new grants totaling $615,023 to help fund research to support the approval or conditional approval of new MUMS animal drugs.

This is Funding Opportunity Announcement Number PAR-18-827. The deadline to submit applications is Aug. 14, through www.grants.gov or the NIH ASSIST system.

The complete announcement is available at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-18-827.html.