NIH to get $2B funding boost in spending bill

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would receive an additional $2 billion in funding under a Senate appropriations bill, according to The Hill.

With the added funding, the agency’s total budget would grow to about $34 billion, $3 billion above what President Barack Obama had requested. NIH had also received an extra $2 billion from a medical research funding bill passed in December.

The areas that would benefit from the additional funding include:

• Alzheimer’s research funding would increase by $400 million to $1.39 billion.
• Precision Medicine Initiative funding would increase by $100 million to $300 million.
• Anti-opioid programs would get an additional $126 million.
• Antibiotic resistance research would receive an additional $53 million.

The spending bill, which covers both HHS and the U.S. Department of Labor, would reportedly also provide a boost to the National Cancer Institute, which is welcome news to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

“During the past year, we have seen a ground swell of bipartisan support for NIH on Capitol Hill, and today’s mark-up shows that leaders in Congress understand the value and importance of ensuring that NIH’s annual budget increases are robust, sustained, and predictable,” AACR CEO Margaret Foti, MD, PhD, said in a statement.

While reaction to the additional funding is positive, some groups have expressed concerns to The Hill about whether NIH will benefit at the expense of other health agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“It’s an amazing number, but the devil’s in the details,” said Ellie Dehoney, the vice president for policy and advocacy for Research!America. “So far, so amazing.”