A Matter of Health

Pushing forward for your health

By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.

The years between 1998 and 2003 were heady ones for the National Institutes of Health as the U.S. Congress pushed ahead with its promise to double funding for that premier biomedical research institution. The United States forged ahead, breaking new ground in a variety of areas. The promise of genomics pushed into proteomics. New understanding of the brain gave hope to those with neurodegenerative disorders. Cancer treatment became more targeted, enabling physicians to treat new malignancies deftly and effectively.

The years since 2003 have not been as kind. In fact, funding for the NIH has been essentially flat in the period since. That means that buying power has decreased by 13 percent. Now, scientists are finding that projects that would have been funded earlier in the millennium are being put on the back-burner – not because they are without merit but because there is no money.

This is a tragedy. Young researchers whose careers hold such promise are leaving academic research because they cannot get grants. Older researchers are finding that their projects are stymied in the middle of collecting data.

More tragic, millions who suffer the most debilitating and devastating diseases may find that understanding of their problems on the basic level, translation of those findings to treatment and development of new drugs are all being held back because there is not enough money to pursue the most promising leads. After all, these patients are the reason that researchers go forth in the laboratory.

Efforts are under way in Congress to improve the situation and restore funding to at least 2003 levels. Last year, Congress authorized an annual increase of 8.7 percent in NIH funding both fiscal years 2007 and 2008, but it is unclear whether that will actually come through.

Now several congressmen are rallying their colleagues to a 6.7 percent increase over three years – which would at least restore that 13 percent cut in purchasing power. The push for more funding has drawn the support of most science and educational advocacy groups.

Restoring funding to the NIH and enabling it to provide more grants to biomedical researchers involves more than dollars and cents. It means a lot in human lives as well.