Leidos Biomedical Research Inc. has obligated a cumulative $4,813,063,024.90 under contract HHSN261200800001E with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to award data published on USAspending.gov. The contract funds operation of the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) in Frederick, Maryland.

The award matters to federal contractors because it illustrates how large, long-running government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) research facility contracts accumulate obligations over more than a decade, and because the lab's operation is now caught in a contested recompete that federal research contractors are watching closely.

Per USAspending.gov, the contract was signed in 2008 with a period of performance running from September 26, 2008 to September 6, 2024. It was awarded through other-than-full-and-open competition — USAspending lists the solicitation procedure as "only one source" with a single offer received — under NAICS code 561210 (Facilities Support Services) and product/service code M181 ("Operation of Govt R&D GOCO Facilities"). Place of performance is Frederick County, Maryland.

According to Washington Technology reporting, NIH awarded a follow-on 25-year, potential $89 billion contract to operate the lab to the Alliance for Advancing Biomedical Research, a group organized by the University of California system, in January 2025. Leidos filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in March 2025 challenging the discussion procedures, technical and cost evaluation, and best-value trade-off. Rather than wait for a GAO ruling due July 3, 2025, NIH reportedly took corrective action and requested revised proposals from competitors. FMG could not independently confirm a final resolution of that recompete as of publication.

Source: USAspending.gov Award HHSN261200800001E