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Dear Friends,

We are pleased to share important and wonderful news about federal funding
for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Last week Congress passed,
and today the President signed, an FY 2019 appropriations bill that
increases the NIH budget by $2 billion for a total of $39.1 billion. This
marks the fourth straight multi-billion dollar increase to the NIH budget,
which has increased by $9 billion over the last four years.

Most importantly, we would like to acknowledge and express our eternal
gratitude to our congressional NIH champions. Our efforts would also not
be possible without the invaluable support of our Advisory Committee
<https://actfornih-site.frb.io/about>, the MD Anderson Cancer Center Board
of Visitors members, congressional staffers, and countless alliances within
the biomedical research community. As always, we would like to thank you
for your partnership in our shared mission.

NIH’s grant portfolio has grown considerably in the last four
years. Rather than being turned away from labs, brilliant young scientists
are now able to realize their dreams, and we are already seeing the results
of major NIH research initiatives. For example:

1. NIH research has contributed to the development of cancer
immunotherapies, including the checkpoint inhibitors pioneered by ACT for
NIH Advisory Committee Member Jim Allison, which enable the immune system
to target previously hidden cancers.

2. The long, discouraging quest for a medication to treat Alzheimer’s has
reached a potentially promising milestone, thanks to a discovery made
possible by NIH research. For the first time in a large clinical trial, a
drug was able to both reduce the plaques in the brains of patients and slow
the progression of dementia. If the results are borne out, the drug may be
the first to successfully attack both the brain changes and the symptoms of
Alzheimer’s.

3. NIH is also playing a major role in addressing our country’s opioid
epidemic, devoting major resources to researching new treatments for opioid
addiction, developing new overdose reversal medications, and improving
non-addictive pain medications.

NIH research is accelerating the discovery and development of treatments
and cures for some of the most intractable diseases and conditions, and our
passion for this critical cause is unwavering. We remain committed to our
mission of seeking restoration of NIH’s budget. Even with the progress we
have made, NIH receives $4 billion less funding, adjusted for inflation,
than it did in 2003. That funding represents thousands of lost research
opportunities to find treatments and cures. We must press on until we
restore NIH funding to its 2003 level and then set it on a path of stable,
predictable growth into the future.

ACT *for* NIH has worked closely with the congressional leaders who
determine the annual NIH funding levels, and NIH restoration has become a
bipartisan congressional priority. We would like to thank NIH
congressional champions on the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Chairs Tom
Cole (R-OK) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Ranking Members Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
and Patty Murray (D-WA). We are also grateful to full Appropriations
Committee Chairs Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) and Richard Shelby (R-AL),
Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY), and Vice Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT), for
their extraordinary commitment to NIH in their funding bills and their
continued commitment to NIH restoration.


NIH restoration will fuel a life sciences revolution that will drive our
economy, address unsustainable entitlement costs, and spare millions from
the ravages of disease. Nothing less than the health and wealth of our
nation is at stake.


There are too many patients to be patient.


Respectfully,


Jed Manocherian

Founder & Chairman, ACT *for* NIH


Pat White

President, ACT *for *NI