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Goal and Objectives
Our goal is to mobilize public support for cancer research so
that we can accelerate the nation’s progress toward the
prevention and cure of cancer. Toward that end, our objectives
are to:
- Demonstrate the benefits of cancer research;
- Illustrate the need for answers to this terrible disease;
and
- Explain the investment needed for the task ahead.
| A. |
Congressional Update
As
you well know the
FY 2003 is the last in the five-year
budget-doubling campaign for the NIH. While the appropriations process
remains unresolved it appears as if Congress will fall slightly short of
giving the NIH what the Administration requests. Between action in the House
and the Senate the NIH budget could end up anywhere between $27.16 billion
and $26.48 billion. As far as the FY 2004 budget request is concerned, the
Administration is expected to request a minimal one or two percent increase
as opposed to the ten percent increase recommended by the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology. Unfortunately this may result
in the inability to fund between 1,000 and 1,200 individual investigator
grants. By essentially flat lining the budget increase, the progress the
last five years has seen within the NIH may be lost. Friends is continuing
to press these issues as the NIH budget goes to the House of Representatives
this week and will fight for a much greater increase in FY 2004.
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| B. |
Public Private PartnershipJanuary marked six
months since
the announcement of the public private partnership on clinical trials that
Friends put together with the Foundation for the NIH, Inc., Association of
American Cancer Institutes and five major pharmaceutical companies.
Representatives recently met to discuss the status of the initiative.
The meeting was very productive and demonstrated the usefulness for industry
and government to work together.
This public-private partnership will provide approximately $6 million to
cancer centers to design and implement new approaches to overcoming barriers
to early-phase clinical trials. The goal of the collaboration is to increase
the percentage – currently only 3 percent to 4 percent – of newly-diagnosed
cancer patients who participate in Phase I and II clinical trials.
We will continue to
keep you informed on the initiative's progress.
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| C. |
Friends
Accomplishments On Thursday, January
16th, The Washington Times ran an op-ed by board member General H. Norman
Schwarzkopf which discussed the importance of medical research and urged
Congress to keep their promise of passing enough funds in the FY 2003 budget
to match the research needs of NIH and NCI.
The op-ed was noticed
on Capitol Hill and received favorable reviews by those in the research
community. We appreciate all who commented on the piece and
especially would like thank General Schwarzkopf for his dedication to this issue.
To read the op-ed,
please visit the Initiatives section of our website at
http://www.focr.org/. |
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Ellen Sigal |
Marlene Malek |
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Chair |
President |
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