Posted on October 28th, 2011 by Dr. Mark Rohrbaugh
Today, as part of his “Startup America” initiative, President Obama announced his plan to accelerate tech transfer and commercialization of Federal research in support of high-growth businesses. As the director of the NIH Office of Technology Transfer, I couldn’t be more excited. NIH manages the largest biomedical patent and licensing portfolio among public sector institutions so we have every interest in seeing these technologies get to the private sector for commercialization so patients can benefit as soon as possible.
Most folks probably aren’t aware that the NIH intramural research program has played a major role in new product development; we have contributed to 14% of all public sector institution inventions that have led to FDA approved drugs. In addition, there are more than 50 products undergoing clinical trials based on technologies licensed from the NIH. The President’s directives clearly outline actions that Federal agencies can take to set clear goals, streamline processes, and develop new partnerships. The goal is to increase the successful outcomes of tech transfer and commercialization activities significantly over the next five years.
An area that I think can bring the fastest gains is streamlining processes; it just has to be made a lot easier. Last month, we announced a new effort to make it easier for startup companies to get license agreements for new technologies developed by NIH and FDA. This will help start-up companies attract the investment needed to develop promising medical products and get them into the hands of doctors and patients.
Another exciting change at NIH is a new centralized web-based materials transfer agreements system, called the Transfer Agreement Dashboard or TAD, which helps make the thousands of tangible research materials easily transferrable to promote research. TAD is intuitive, less time consuming, and nearly paperless . . . welcome to the 21st Century! Finally, we’ve embraced several new technologies to foster collaboration, including Pipeline-2-Partnerships, a new web platform that makes it easier to form partnerships with companies that are developing NIH technologies.
I have no doubt that NIH will continue to be on the leading edge as we work to implement the President’s plans, but as always, we would love your feedback. Let us know where you think we can do more to meet his five-year goal to accelerate tech transfer, innovation, and commercialization.
Posted on September 20th, 2011 by Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD
Diseases neither know nor respect national boundaries. Consequently, our efforts to use the power of research to develop new ways of fighting disease must have a vision that extends beyond borders, sets aside traditional rivalries, and supersedes scientific egos.
We now have an exceptional opportunity to do just that by focusing attention on what may be the world’s quietest epidemic: the global surge in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases. The opportunity comes in the form of the U.N. High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases, which I’m attending this week as part of the HHS delegation.
This meeting coincides with the 10th anniversary of another important global health milestone, the U.N. General Assembly Special Session on HIV, which was instrumental in making the HIV/AIDS pandemic a priority for global development. Let us hope that this week’s gathering in New York generates similar momentum against non-communicable diseases.
For the future of the world’s physical and economic health, we can’t afford to ignore this epidemic. This year, 2 of every 3 deaths around the globe will be caused by non-communicable diseases. What’s more, 80 percent of these deaths—and the vast majority of such deaths in people under 60—occur in countries with developing economies or economies in transition. In addition, mental health and neurological disorders are taking a toll on lives and livelihoods. Already, mental disorders alone represent 4 of the 10 leading causes of disability worldwide.
The impact on the global economy is alarming. For each 10 percent rise in mortality from non-communicable diseases, annual economic growth is reduced by 0.5 percent. Unless action is taken to slow or reverse current trends, the World Health Organization estimates that non-communicable diseases will cost the global economy some $35 trillion from 2005 to 2030.
Many sectors of society, including biomedical research, need to pull together to address this mind-boggling problem. To ensure the most effective and efficient use of very limited resources, such efforts must be supported by a firm foundation of data generated by well-designed research studies.
One frontier is the identification of disease risk factors in different environments, and the development, implementation, and testing of community-based strategies to reduce or eliminate harmful exposures. Many risk factors, such as tobacco, are well recognized. But we are just beginning to understand the full impact of others, such as salt consumption and exposure to toxins from indoor, unvented cooking stoves.
Not only will advances made by U.S. researchers help to reduce the worldwide burden of non-communicable diseases, our nation’s health also stands to benefit from the creative, cost-effective ideas of researchers in developing nations. One way to encourage this innovative flow on the scale needed to fight this massive epidemic is through international partnerships. For example, the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, which includes NIH and medical research agencies in Australia, Canada, China, South Africa, and the U.K., recently launched an initiative to support hypertension research in low- and middle-income nations.
This is one epidemic in which there truly is no “us” and “them,” only “we.” All nations are feeling the devastating impact of non-communicable diseases, and, consequently, must be part of the solution.
Posted on August 8th, 2011 by Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD
This weekend we lost two pillars in biomedical research; Dr. Bernadine Healy, the first female NIH Director, and former Senator Mark Hatfield, who was a strong and consistent supporter of medical research. Both of these inspiring individuals believed in the NIH mission and worked to make NIH the greatest hub of biomedical research in the world. Dr. Healy propelled research on women’s health; dramatically advancing what we know about women’s risk for common diseases. Senator Hatfield was a tireless champion for NIH and we will be reminded of his support every time we walk into the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center. We will miss them both tremendously.
This week a true pioneer in women’s health, Dr. Vivian Pinn, announced that she’s retiring from NIH. Vivian was the first Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) and tirelessly led that office for almost two decades. But she was more than the leader of ORWH, Vivian has brought wide spread attention to the absence of women participants in biomedical research and the exclusion of women’s health in clinical decision-making. She made it her mission to highlight the importance of sex-specific differences in disease development, progression, and response to clinical interventions. She has tirelessly monitored the landscape of health research for women and has led efforts to set the research priorities. She understands that priorities won’t set themselves; it takes a passionate, intelligent, experienced, and insightful individual, with an incredible amount of support, to gather the right folks and figure out what we still don’t know but need to know.
Dr. Pinn has also been a leader in the effort to increase the representation of women in biomedicine and to make sure that women who pursue careers in health sciences have equal footing with their male colleagues. Looking around NIH today and the vibrant extramural community, women are an integral part of the science that goes on across the US. I know that Vivian can remember a time when that was not the case, in fact she sat amongst only white male classmates in medical school in the 1960’s. What a difference we have seen and we owe so much of that to women like Vivian Pinn.
This is a big loss for all of us who have worked with her over the years, but she leaves behind a robust legacy of putting women’s issues on the radar at NIH. Vivian, we wish you the best. We will keep pushing for women’s health and hope that we will make you proud.
