The National Institutes of Health, the U.S.'s medical research agency, awarded an operation contract of $89 billion for the lab to the Alliance for Advancing Biomedical Research on Jan. 17.
The contract may potentially last for 25 years, as reported by the business publication GovCon Wire.
Leidos Biomedical, formerly known as SAIC-Frederick and a subsidiary of the company Leidos, was first awarded a contract to manage the lab's day-to-day operations in 1995. The contract was renewed for another 10 years in 2008.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI), which owns the lab, had started looking for other entities to potentially manage the facility in 2015, but the search was suspended in 2016.
Leidos spokesperson Brandon Ver Velde wrote in an email Thursday that the company has been proud to support the NCI and the Frederick National Laboratory's mission.
"While we are disappointed that we may not continue this particular work and partnership, we expect to receive more information on our proposal in the coming days, which will help us better understand the evaluation process and next steps," he wrote.
