Cordova tribe's company gets $2.1 million NIH order for population health statistics

The National Institutes of Health on Thursday ordered $2.14 million in statistical support from Coho Consulting Group, an Anchorage company owned by the Native Village of Eyak, the tribal government in Cordova.

The work is for the Division of Population Health Research at NIH's child health institute, according to the federal award record. The division studies health across whole populations rather than individual patients, focusing on reproduction, the health of pregnant women and infants, and how children and adolescents grow and develop, according to its NIH page. Work the page highlights includes research on depression and anxiety during pregnancy and the year after.

The order runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 18, 2027, and the record lists a possible end date in 2030. Only small businesses could compete, and Coho was the only one to make an offer. The record lists Bethesda, Maryland, as the place of performance but doesn't say where the statisticians will work.

It's the only Health and Human Services contract in Coho's record on USAspending.gov. Most of the company's federal contract money, about $48.9 million, has come from the Defense Department, followed by about $9 million from the State Department and $2.4 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Coho is one of the Copper River companies, which the Native Village of Eyak owns outright. Unlike an Alaska Native corporation, which issues stock to individual shareholders, the companies send their income back to the tribe to help fund health and social services for its members, according to Coho's website.

Another Copper River company, Coho Construction Management, won a $10.1 million contract in September to rebuild the Labor Department's Great Hall in Washington, Alaska News reported.