Researchers decry flat NIH budgets, fear delays in treatment advances

Scientists are downsizing labs and dropping some of their most innovative work, says a report by medical schools.

By Doug Trapp, AMNews staff. April 9, 2007.

Washington -- Some of tomorrow's breakthrough medical treatments are going to take longer to develop -- if they happen at all -- thanks to years of stagnant National Institutes of Health budgets, researchers and patient advocates warn.

The NIH budget doubled between 1998 and 2003 to $27.1 billion, but for the last three years Congress has kept funding at about $28 billion. Biomedical research inflation has averaged 4% annually since 2004, so in effect, NIH finances have slipped.

"Flat funding of the NIH, combined with inflation, is eroding research budgets," states "Within Our Grasp -- Or Slipping Away?" a report by a coalition of eight medical schools, including Johns Hopkins and Harvard University, and unveiled March 19 on Capitol Hill. "Scientists are being forced to downsize their laboratories and abandon some of their most innovative and promising work."

The funding problems come at a time of heightened interest in research, driven in part by the sequencing of the human genome. In 2002, the NIH funded 31% of 30,068 grant applications. In 2006, it funded 20% of 45,688 applications, found an analysis by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Approvals remained stalled at about 9,000.

Budget pressures have forced NIH review panels to reject high-quality grant applications and to fund research seen as less risky, states the "Within Our Grasp" report.

"No wonder so many of the best and brightest stars are leaving the research field," said Edward Miller, MD, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.