President Obama announced today that the National Institute of Health (NIH) would receive a $5 billion grant for future research.
Why is this such an important announcement? Because, as a report from a Joint Economic Committee of Congress pointed out, of the 21 highest ranking therapeutic drugs introduced between 1965 and 1992 public funding was "instrumental" for 15 of those drugs.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. As the report notes, private research is not only built "on a foundation funded by federal research" but many of the ideas underlying the private sector's commercial success "were developed by federally funded research."
These developments explain why President Obama said that the $5 billion grant represented the "single largest boost to biomedical research in history." Because NIH funded research creates the conditions for more projects and new medical breakthroughs the Joint Economic Committee also found that NIH funding has a net economic rate of return of 25-40% per year. This makes the NIH grant, as President Obama noted, a jobs creating engine.
The NIH, which got it's start in 1887 as the U.S. Hygienic Laboratory (with a $300 budget), is a non-profit agency responsible for biomedical and other health-related research. It's peer - in many respects - is the non-profit Pasteur Institute in France. In addition to funding the research of 93 Nobel Prize winners, most recently the NIH has been responsible for 36% of all biomedical research in the U.S. (the private sector funds approximately 57%, while other non-profits fund about 7%).
Why is this such an important announcement? Because, as a report from a Joint Economic Committee of Congress pointed out, of the 21 highest ranking therapeutic drugs introduced between 1965 and 1992 public funding was "instrumental" for 15 of those drugs.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. As the report notes, private research is not only built "on a foundation funded by federal research" but many of the ideas underlying the private sector's commercial success "were developed by federally funded research."
These developments explain why President Obama said that the $5 billion grant represented the "single largest boost to biomedical research in history." Because NIH funded research creates the conditions for more projects and new medical breakthroughs the Joint Economic Committee also found that NIH funding has a net economic rate of return of 25-40% per year. This makes the NIH grant, as President Obama noted, a jobs creating engine.
The NIH, which got it's start in 1887 as the U.S. Hygienic Laboratory (with a $300 budget), is a non-profit agency responsible for biomedical and other health-related research. It's peer - in many respects - is the non-profit Pasteur Institute in France. In addition to funding the research of 93 Nobel Prize winners, most recently the NIH has been responsible for 36% of all biomedical research in the U.S. (the private sector funds approximately 57%, while other non-profits fund about 7%).
Given the Bush adminstration's antagonistic approach to science, this is a good day for scientists.
- Mark
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