Begin forwarded message:  From: "Benford, Joffrey (OS/ASPR/BARDA)"   Date: April 7, 2020 at 6:35:45 PM EDT  To: "Disbrow, Gary (OS/ASPR/BARDA)" , "Bright, Rick (OS/ASPR/BARDA)"    Subject: FW:  Request for a Pre Contract Spend Agreement  Rick / Gary,  See below.  From: Wendy Holman    Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2020 6:12 PM  To: Benford, Joffrey (OS/ASPR/BARDA)   Subject: FW: Request for a Pre Contract Spend Agreement  Joffrey Thanks for taking my call and your willingness to help guide us. In short, a member of our team spoke to Bryan Shuy this morning around 11 am. Bryan told him that although we submitted to ASPR Next, the Contracting Officers who support that program were completely underwater helping with the SNS. Bryan specifically said he planned to reach out to you to ask you to handle this. It looks like he got busy again before he had a chance to do that. I trust completely this is not on your radar If I can beg a favor of you, attached is the pre-award authorization we were hoping someone from HHS can sign. As you see, it is modeled exactly on the one for Ebola you are familiar with. We need this approval to start the clinical trial for EIDD 2801 as soon as possible. As I mentioned, Dr. Kadlec personally called us late last night and asked us to accelerate as fast as possible his trial and put us directly in touch with the doctor in New York that has the most Covid-19 patients in the country. If there is any way you can help at all by calling either Bryan and getting his permission to do this or ask Makota Braxton to move this forward it would be a huge help. Lives are literally depending on it and Dr. Kadlec is pushing us to move fast, but we can’t without this authorization. Anything thing you can do to help me would appreciated - I very much understand this isn't on your plate but anything you can to do help me solve this would really make a difference. Thanks Wendy     From: Wendy Holman   Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 10:31 AM  To: ASPR Next (OS/ASPR)   Subject: FW: Request for a Pre Contract Spend Agreement     To whom it may concern:  Is it possible to move forward with a Pre Contract Spend Agreement? Our Phase 1 trial is expected to start on April 8. I am required to sign a work order with our CRO by April 7 in order to start this trial. I would appreciate any visibility on this request in order to decide if this trial can begin.  Thank you, Wendy Holman    From: Wendy Holman   Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 12:17 PM  To: ASPR Next (OS/ASPR)   Cc: GovtProgramsAdmin@Ridgebackbio.com  Subject: Request for a Pre Contract Spend Agreement     As ASPR is aware, Ridgeback must immediately initiate agreements with this CRO (Covance) in order to begin the pending Clinical Trial for EIDD 2801, to begin April 8, 2020. In order to avoid any delay in executing this clinical trial, Ridgeback must receive approval from ASPR as soon as possible to incur preaward costs to launch this trial. We completely understand that these costs are at our own risk and, if there is no contract that results from our proposal, the USG will not be responsible for these costs.    Attached, you will find the Advance Agreement for pre-contract costs which we were able to execute in advance of our contract with BARDA for our Ebola work. By way of background, I believe Ridgeback is one of the only companies that has been awarded a Letter Contract by BARDA prior to Covid-19 in the last decade. Ridgeback executed that contract on schedule, delivery on scope and slightly under budget. During the performance of the Letter Contract with BARDA, we met with our program officer regularly and included the BARDA team in all essential discussions    Ridgeback is very concerned that its proposal is in limbo as there may not be clear direction on where it should go (ASPR Next or BARDA). We were directed to the ASPR Next funding mechanism by ASPR (and with BARDA’s direction to Emory in November 2019 that it could not fund EIDD 2801 prior to entering the clinic), but if we are in the wrong place, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can approach the proper channel. We desperately need guidance on this.    We have been working around the clock to get a trial started next week for the this potent oral therapeutic against COVID-19. Our plan is to initiate the clinical trial next week and immediately begin the process of sourcing additional clinical trial material, secure additional Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) as well as secure the essential raw materials that is needed to make API. Securing these sources is incredibly critical as the world is appropriately reconfiguring their supply chain.     If it is possible to secure an Advanced Agreement for pre-contract costs, this will allow us to keep on the accelerated development path and one step closer to finding a treatment for COVID19.    Many thanks for your time and consideration,  Wendy Holman    You can reach me at any time of the day or night at 347-703-2986            Wendy Holman  CEO  wendy@ridgebackbio.com       3162 Commodore Plaza, Suite 3E  Miami, FL 33133‐5815  USA  305‐602‐5172  https://protect2.fireeye.com/url?k=f6bddf45‐aae9f66e‐f6bdee7a‐0cc47a6d17cc‐ 0d23cab62a50529e&u=http://www.ridgebackbio.com/ [ridgebackbio.com]