Bill Introduced to Increase NIH Funding. Such bills make us examine the role of the federal government in medical research.
H.R. 5580, “Accelerating Biomedical Research Act,” a bill to prioritize funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was introduced by Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Brian Higgins (D-NY) and sent to the House Budget Committee on September 30, 2014.
Although the bill has little chance of success, it contains some interesting statistics on NIH research and where our taxpayer dollars go. For example, federal funding of $3,800,000,000 in the Human Genome Project from 1988 to 2003 helped drive $796,000,000,000 in economic output, which is a return of $141 for every $1 invested. In 2013, sales of products built around licensed NIH and Food and Drug Administration inventions included 358 licensees reporting a total of $7,000,000,000 in sales.
Of course, there was no mention of the advances from the private sector.
Full text and bill status at: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr5580
Synopsis courtesy of Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD
