Science Applications International Corporation today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary SAIC-Frederick, Inc. has been awarded a follow-on contract by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to provide operations and technical support to NCI's Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) in Frederick, Md. The single award contract has a three-year base period of performance, five one-year award-term options, and one two-year option, for an estimated contract value of $5.2 billion if all options are exercised. The FFRDC is one of only 38 national laboratories in the United States and the only one solely dedicated to cancer and HIV/AIDS research. The FFRDC strives to develop new technologies and translate scientific discoveries into novel agents for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and AIDS. SAIC has been the operations and technical support contractor for the FFRDC since 1995, and in 2000 formed SAIC-Frederick to continue the work. The contract is the largest single research contract awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the new contract, SAIC-Frederick will provide operations and technical support to the overall mission of the NCI within three major focus areas: basic research, translational research and development, and preclinical research and development. SAIC-Frederick employs more than 1,700 scientific, technical, and support personnel, and manages a comprehensive suite of cutting-edge advanced technologies in genomics, proteomics, nanotechnology, optical and electron microscopy, and high-performance biomedical computing. Under the current contract, SAIC-Frederick supports more than 300 clinical trials, and manages a pilot program of community hospitals in 14 states studying how best to bring the latest, evidence-based cancer care to rural, inner-city, and underserved patients. It also operates two biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities --- one for NCI and the other for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Vaccine Research Center. These facilities produce drugs, vaccines, and other biologics for use in clinical trials. "We appreciate the confidence NCI has shown in SAIC over the past 13 years and look forward to continuing our work to help deliver preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic products to cancer patients," said Charles Koontz, SAIC group president.