In line with the FDA Opioids Action Plan and the agency’s broad strategy to take concrete steps to help combat this national drug epidemic and reduce the impact of opioid abuse on American families and communities, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Office of Communications (CDER/OCOMM) seeks

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to further the goals of the Search and Rescue opioid prescriber education campaign of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids (PDFK), whose goal is to reduce opioid abuse and misuse.

The Search and Rescue campaign was developed and implemented jointly by CDER/OCOMM and PDFK under a five-year cooperative agreement in support of PDFK’s nationwide medicine abuse education and mobilization effort called The Medicine Abuse Project.

Search and Rescue was developed and implemented with assistance and sole funding support provided by FDA/CDER/OCOMM.

The campaign is built on evidence gathered through a year of research with opioid prescribers conducted as part of this cooperative agreement, and it has undergone a comprehensive, systematic, iterative process of piloting followed by significant evaluation and refinement leading up to its national launch in the fall of 201 6. FDA has been directly involved in all aspects of this campaign, investing considerable time and effort in its development, refinement, and implementation.

The funding provided through this cooperative agreement will allow FDA to maximize its support and investment of resources made to date by allowing the agency to continue its essential work on this initiative, which has been mandated not only by FDA’s Commissioner, but by the Secretary of HHS; the U. S. surgeon general; other government and health agencies and organizations at the federal, state and local levels; as well as the U. S. president himself.

This funding is also crucial to ensuring the continued and widespread outreach of the Search and Rescue campaign’s critical public health messages.