NCCIH Natural Product Early Phase Clinical Trial Award (R33 Clinical Trial Required)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications for investigator-initiated, early phase, clinical trials of natural products (i.e., botanicals, dietary supplements, and probiotics), which have a strong scientific premise to justify further clinical testing. Under this FOA, trials must be designed so that results, whether positive or negative, will provide information of high scientific utility and will support decisions about further development or testing of the natural product.

This FOA will provide up to 3 years support for studies to replicate the impact of the natural product on the biological signature(s) when used by humans and assess whether there is an association between the degree of the impact on the biological signature and functional or clinical outcomes in a patient population. Applications are encouraged to design studies to determine how to optimize the impact of the natural product on the biological signature by optimizing the delivery of the natural product by examining different doses or formulations. In addition, applications can be designed to combine the natural product with another treatment approach that is known to impact the same biological signature; or study the impact of the natural product in a target population that is more responsive. Clinical trials submitted under this FOA are expected to be hypothesis based, milestone-driven, and directly related to the research priorities and mission of NCCIH. This R33 funding mechanism is intended to accelerate the translation of emerging basic science findings about natural products into early stage clinical testing to determine whether continued clinical research is warranted. This FOA will not support efficacy or effectiveness trials, nor will it support trials to test natural products for the treatment or prevention of cancer.