Related Information

Stay connected. Sign up now to be informed of the latest FasterCures blogs, events and program updates.

 

Public Comments

FasterCures Comments to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
Jan 04, 2010

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). FasterCures’ mission is to accelerate the process of discovery and development of new medical solutions for deadly and debilitating diseases. Founded in 2003 under the auspices of the Milken Institute, the organization works across multiple sectors to transform the medical research enterprise by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of research resources and organizations.

Last January, a six-member task force convened by FasterCures and chaired by Nobel Laureate and FasterCures board member Dr. David Baltimore, issued a set of recommendations to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding how to strengthen the mission and impact of the Intramural Research Program (IRP), which comprises almost 6,000 scientists and constitutes nearly ten percent of the NIH’s budget. The task force’s recommendations were shared with the Administration and the IRP has since been made a priority of the NIH’s Scientific Management Review Board. We hope PCAST will consider these recommendations as part of its agenda for 2010.

The task force suggested giving the IRP a distinct mission and identity in the service of improving public health. This mission was three-fold:

  • To focus on translational research, especially work that utilizes the unique capabilities of the NIH Clinical Center;
  • To be prepared to respond expeditiously to new scientific opportunities and challenges; and 
  • To focus on high-risk, long-term basic research goals that would be difficult to pursue in the extramural research environment.

Specific recommendations included:

  • NIH should articulate an overarching mission for the IRP and strategies for meeting goals over the next five years, focused specifically on advancing translational and clinical research in the interest of public health.
  • The Clinical Center must be fully utilized and the IRP’s clinical research program should be expanded.
  • The IRP should be encouraged to systematically and proactively mobilize resources to rapidly and effectively respond to emerging scientific challenges and opportunities.
  • The IRP should be the premier national program for translational and clinical research training.
  • The IRP should play a central role in developing and sustaining large-scale, long-term projects.

Despite decades of progress in our fundamental understanding of human disease, our ability to translate exciting new discoveries into products that can help patients is lagging behind the pace of discovery. In order to reverse this trend, we must find new ways to maximize our nation’s current investments in biomedical research. While policymakers continue to focus on the important task of reforming our healthcare system, we hope PCAST will simultaneously consider ways to nurture our health cure system. Only if we translate promising scientific research into new therapies and acquire a better understanding of how to prevent and treat disease will we have any hope of reducing healthcare costs, productivity losses, and human suffering.

Thank you again for the opportunity to comment during this process.
 

< back