(a) It is HHS policy that contracting activities shall not award a contract involving live vertebrate animals until the contractor has given acceptable assurance that the work under the contract will be subject to initial and continuing review by an appropriate Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) as described in the PHS Policy at IV.B.6. and 7. The Contracting Officer shall require an applicable Full Animal Welfare Assurance or Inter-institutional Agreement/Assurance, approved by the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), NIH, of each contractor, subcontractor, or cooperating institution having responsibility for animal care and use involved in performance of the contract- see PHS Policy II., IV.A., and V.B.
(b) The OLAW, NIH, is responsible for negotiating assurances covering all HHS/PHS-supported or HHS/PHS-conducted activities involving the care and use of live vertebrate animals. OLAW shall provide guidance to Contracting Officers regarding adequate animal care, and use, approval, disapproval, restriction, or withdrawal of approval of assurances- see PHS Policy V.A.
