Life Sciences

Life Sciences

Recent events have unveiled the strategic and essential need for robust technology solutions to life science challenges. Though there are private sources of capital available to this industry, organizations of all types and sizes require government leadership to meet and overcome technical and business hurdles. Specifically, non-dilutive funding is critical for the development of most medical and biotechnology research programs. Yet, the confusing labyrinth of government funders and acronyms can be daunting to navigate. The federal government provides support for every step of the research and development pipeline including basic research, IND-enabling studies, manufacturing, and clinical trials. It is difficult to determine which organizations, people, and opportunities match an organization’s specific needs and stage of development or manufacturing.

SMI’s Life Science team has a proven track record for obtaining non-dilutive federal life science research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support a wide range of technologies including antimicrobials, vaccines, trauma care, regenerative medicine, synthetic biology, medical devices, and diagnostics. SMI employs a two-prong strategy to obtain federal funds and enhance client visibility that includes direct interaction with the relevant program officers and federal stakeholders to proactively build opportunities and congressional outreach to shape legislation, policies, and increase relevant federal budgets. This strategy is further supported by SMI’s role in facilitating collaboration between organizations using its extensive network of subject matter experts and other organizations in industry.

Our Life Science team of in-house experts, senior advisers, and lobbyists can build a funding strategy and engagement plan that is tailored to your stage of development. The SMI team is familiar with both the traditional funding mechanisms, such as Broad Area Announcements (BAAs), Referrals for Proposals (RFPs), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIRs), and more novel mechanisms, such as Other Transactional Authorities (OTAs).