Congressional Update

The FY 2003 budget completes the five-year doubling effort with $27.17 billion, a total increase of $3.79 billion over FY 2002; however the FY 2004 budget request has fallen short of expected needs, giving the NIH only a 2% increase around $50 million. This is well below needs and recommendations. In its annual "Federal Funding for Biomedical and Related Life Sciences Research" recommendations, FASEB called for a 10% increase, or $2.7 billion. The 2% increase would create a lack of funds that would cripple the agency’s ability to support individual investigator grants, the backbone of new discoveries. With this little increase it is estimated that between 1,000 and 1,200 grants will not receive funding. The fight for a greater increase is not over and we will certainly press this issue as much as possible.

 Friends Accomplishments

During the month of February Friends has been working to set up a forum in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson Center. This event, to take place in May, will honor Sherry Lansing and Betty Ford for their commitment to curing cancer. The goal of the forum is to create awareness about new and emerging science that will offer highly effective treatments with little, or no toxicity. Highlighting the major opportunities a panels of experts will speak on the promises of new medicine and the possible barriers to progress. Topics may include chemoprevention, molecular signatures of cancer cells, pharmacogenomics (the study of how genetic makeup affects a person’s reaction to a particular drug), micro-imaging techniques, and the advancements offered by the Human Genome Project. Anticipated and existing barriers that will be addressed may include the regulatory environment, the inability to filter new and emerging science into the government, and the problems with Medicare and CMS reimbursements. We are also looking at the possibility of holding a forum in New York about the future of medicine.