Daré Bioscience lands $908K NIH grant to advance preterm birth program
What's the deal? Daré Bioscience (NASDAQ: DARE) has secured a grant of roughly $908,000 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, part of the National Institutes of HealthDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The award funds a year of preclinical development for DARE-PTB2, an early-stage program to prevent idiopathic preterm birth.
What's the endgame? The notice of award also recommends about $1.3 million in future-year support for initial pharmacokinetic, safety, and toxicity studies. The grant builds on a $400,000 NICHD award from July 2023 that funded proof-of-concept validation studies with the University of South FloridaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Why it matters: The funding is non-dilutive, letting Daré advance the program without issuing new equity. DARE-PTB2 targets a condition — birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy — that has no FDA-approved therapies.
What could go wrong? The program remains at the preclinical stage, its central development risk. NIH backing is now the main source of financing behind it.
The signal: For a small-cap developer, government grants offer a way to progress high-risk, early-stage research while preserving the balance sheet. The $908,000 award ranks in roughly the 31st percentile by size among comparable rounds — modest, but enough to keep an unmet-need program moving.
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Image credit: Dare Bioscience
