The Burrill Report


Francis Collins has been known to sing. There are various YouTube videos of him with guitar in hand belting out a tune. But the other day Collins was hoping to get others to sing, as it were, in unison.

Speaking at the Burrill Personalized Medicine Meeting October 4 in Burlingame, California, the National Institutes of Health Director discussed the initiatives under way at the NIH meant to address endemic problems of drug development today. Then he turned his attention to matters of realpolitik.

After seeing its budget double from 1998 to 2003, the NIH’s funding has flattened. What’s more troubling is that when the cost of biomedical inflation is taken into consideration, it has actually lost ground. Today, when adjusted for inflation, NIH funding is about where it was a decade ago.

Though the budget proposed by the Obama administration calls for a 2.4 percent increase to $32 billion for the 2012 fiscal year, a funding level that would keep the budget flat in real terms, Collins candidly admits that NIH will be lucky to get that “after the dust settles.”

He noted with tightening budget it’s been tougher for applicants to win grants. The success rates for applicants have dropped to less than 20 percent from a level of 30 to 35 percent. The consequence, he says, is that this discourages promising young investigators from taking risks and pursuing bold ideas for fear of the consequence of failure.

Collins then turned to his audience and asked them to take their excitement about the scientific potential of the work that’s being done today and talk about it with others.

“We should not be shy to talk about it and share with anyone who is willing to listen, how this is on the track toward revolutionizing the practice of medicine for prevention and treatment and cures,” said Collins. “I think we also have to be well-versed in the economic arguments. And I have become much more versed in those than I ever thought I would be when I came to this job two years ago.”

He then rattled off a number that seemed to have become well worn in his brain, telling the audience that for every dollar that NIH gives out in a grant it returns $2.21 within one year in economic goods and services to the local community.

And then, channeling his inner Mitch Miller, Collins encouraged everyone to sing, or at least speak, in unison. With an image of a symphony chorus on the screens in the room, he said, “We can all do this better if not just one voice speaks, but we all join our voices in a fashion that makes this a symphony that is not just self promoting, but talks about the benefits for the future, for the American public, for the American economy, for American competitiveness. We have a great story to tell.”

That story, according to Collins, is not only one of helping those suffering from disease, but of a “unique moment in history” where technology and science is allowing us to tackle problems “we couldn’t have dreamed of being able to tackle even a decade ago.”

“So perhaps, we could all sing that together and hope that those making the decisions will listen,” he said. “Much depends upon it.”

No doubt it’s an ugly time to win appropriations and Collins knows the best chance he has of protecting his budget is by letting those in Washington who are making the budget decisions hear from their constituents. While the guys who wear lab coats long shied away from making their voices heard in Congress, that has changed with concerted efforts to organize and train scientists to speak out on the importance of research funding. While it looked like we had moved past the stagnant NIH budgets seen under the Bush Administration, once again, researchers will need to fight to protect their turf.

As Collins noted, the arguments are strong. They are not just about easing the suffering of the ill, but arguments for American competitiveness, economic strength, and return on investment. To his long list of titles, perhaps Collins should now add political scientist.



October 07, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-sing_for_your_supper.html