Pediatric Healthcare Innovators Compete for Funding

The FDA, according to its website, currently supports eight consortia that provide advice and funding to help commercialize technologies for pediatric care. The FDA defines “pediatric” as encompassing devices used for patients who are 21 years of age or younger at the time of diagnosis or treatment.

Many of the consortia hold innovation competitions where winners are awarded grants and support services. For example, PR Newswire reports that the New England Pediatric Device Consortium (NEPDC) has awarded three companies grants and in-kind services for products aimed at preventing the dislodgement or unintended removal of catheters or tubing. According to NEPDC’s Request for Abstracts, the grants are up to $50,000 each. NEPDC offers quarterly grant opportunities; the next abstract deadline for grant funding is October 9, 2017, with applications due on October 23, according to PR Newswire.

The National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI) has narrowed a record number of 98 applications from across the globe down to twelve finalists, according to PR Newswire. This is the 5th annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium hosted by NCC-PDI, a FDA-funded consortium led by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation and A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland according to the competition’s homepage. NCC-PDI highlights that up to six finalists will be awarded up to $50,000 each after the presentations held on September 24, 2017.

Another consortia, the Atlantic Pediatric Device Consortium (APDC), announced that it will hold Round 1 winner presentations at its 7th annual Pediatric Device Innovation Competition on September 25, 2017. The proposal deadline was July 31, 2017, and award winners will be notified on October 30, 2017, according to APDC.

Also, in January of 2017, the Philadelphia Pediatric Medical Device Consortium (PPDC) announced that it chose three companies from eight finalists to receive seed grants of $50,000 each. The PPDC announced that the Request for Applications for its next Sponsored Project Proposals begins on September 11, 2017.

According to a 2016 FDA review, the FDA-funded pediatric consortia have advised 406 pediatric device projects and innovators since 2013, and as of the first fiscal quarter of 2016 there were 10 patents obtained and 5 devices available for use in the care for pediatric patients.