Emmes announced the award of eight new task order contract awards associated with the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, known as the NIH HEAL Initiative. The total value for the eight contracts is more than $9 million. The contract awards' duration ranges from one to five years.
The National Institutes of Health launched the HEAL Initiative in April 2018 to improve prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction and enhance pain management. The eight Emmes contract awards are among 375 grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements across 41 states made by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2019 to apply scientific solutions to reverse the national opioid crisis.
"The new contracts recognize our 10-year track record for providing data and statistics support to the research sponsored by NIH's National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA)," said Dr. Paul Van Veldhuisen, Emmes' chief operating officer. "It's extremely satisfying for our company and our staff to join with leading researchers across the country in combatting the opioid epidemic."
As the data and statistical center for the NIDA-sponsored National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network, or CTN, Emmes will support the enhancement of the CTN to address opioid research. This enhancement will include activities to improve access to high-quality addiction treatment, including studies of the delivery of Opioid Use Disorder (ODU) in general medical settings, as well as ways to prevent the progression of moderate to severe ODU.
Emmes will be responsible for establishing systems for data collection and management; designing and performing statistical analyses; reviewing and monitoring the quality of data and clinical trial progress; preparing study reports; and supporting manuscripts for publication.
"This new work truly reflects our mission to bring statistical solutions and dedicated research to the most pressing human health problems of our time," Dr. Anne Lindblad, Emmes' president and chief executive officer, said.
The company plans to hire about 10 additional staff members with statistical, data management and IT skills to work on the new contracts.
According to the NIH, the initiative is leveraging expertise from almost every NIH institute and center to approach the crisis from all angles and disciplines, and across the full spectrum of research.
"It's clear that a multi-pronged scientific approach is needed to reduce the risks of opioids, accelerate development of effective non-opioid therapies for pain and provide more flexible and effective options for treating addiction to opioids," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., who launched the initiative in early 2018. "This unprecedented investment in the NIH HEAL Initiative demonstrates the commitment to reversing this devastating crisis."