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December 2010

NIH board recommends new center to advance the development of health tools for neglected and rare diseases

December 10, 2010 -- Earlier this week, the Scientific Management Review Board at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommended that the agency create a new center devoted to advancing new medical therapeutics. The proposed National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences would establish a focused, integrated, and systematic approach to link basic research with therapeutic development and clinical care. According to NIH Director Francis Collins, the new center would likely focus on neglected diseases of the developing world, as well as rare diseases. "NIH has never done anything quite like this," Collins said, adding, "We are asking how can we improve the success of getting the ideas from an early stage to a successful clinical trial.”

NIH has a long history of helping to develop new therapeutics, and Collins said that the new center would be a mechanism to better coordinate these efforts. He added that the center is a way for the NIH to strengthen its partnership with industry groups. "This is a great opportunity for NIH to tighten up our partnership with industry in terms of development of therapeutics," Collins said, adding, "It solves a problem for them, too. As you know, the success of getting new drugs approved by FDA has been pretty spotty over the past few years in spite of investment. Pharmaceutical companies are pretty frustrated. They love this idea because it is a way of filling their pipeline."

Collins plans to present a detailed plan for the new center to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius early next year. If all goes as planned, NIH hopes to have the reorganization take effect on October 1, 2011. The NIH is also accepting public comment on the proposed new center on its website. See the links below for more details.

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