The U.S. NIH is not generally regarded as a wellspring of concepts and policies in the world of artificial intelligence (AI), but that perception may change soon thanks to the agency’s Bridge2AI program. The agency announced recently that it will drop $130 million into this program over four years in an effort to develop standards for data used in AI research, a key development for device makers seeking to sell products that use these complex algorithms.
The U.S. NIH is not generally regarded as a wellspring of concepts and policies in the world of artificial intelligence (AI), but that perception may change soon thanks to the agency’s Bridge2AI program. The agency announced recently that it will drop $130 million into this program over four years in an effort to develop standards for data used in AI research, a key development for device makers seeking to sell products that use these complex algorithms.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is still widely seen as the most common cause of irreversible blindness in those aged 50 and older, but the U.S. NIH and two partners from the private sector believe they have a solution. The three have teamed up to develop a patch embedded with induced pluripotent stem cells that has been implanted in a patient in the U.S. for the first time, marking the commencement of a safety study that may help take a bite out of the $4.6 billion in direct medical spending on AMD each year in the U.S.
Bright Uro Inc. has emerged from stealth mode with $4 million in seed financing from Academy Investor Network, Fred Moll and several other angel investors. The company also secured a $2 million phase II small business innovation research (SBIR) grant from the NIH.
The cost of providing COVID-19 vaccines and therapies for a possible fall surge in the U.S. is coming at the expense of testing and personal protection equipment. While other countries are planning for the expected surge by placing their orders for vaccines and therapies, “we are starting to lose our place in line,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said during a June 9 media briefing.
The issue of life science espionage continues to reverberate across the U.S., and a new report by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) suggests that vulnerabilities in the U.S. have not been adequately addressed. The OIG report said that more than two thirds of NIH grantees failed to meet at least one requirement for investigator disclosures about their activities related to foreign entities, including governments, a problem OIG says is in dire need of a fix.
In an effort to increase global access to COVID-19 technologies, the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and the Medicines Patent Pool finalized a licensing agreement May 12 with the U.S. NIH for research tools, early stage vaccines and diagnostics.
With its focus on transformative high-risk, high-reward research to drive biomedical breakthroughs, the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) may be a good concept, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of increased investment in basic research at the NIH, according to the bipartisan leadership of U.S. House appropriators.
Making his first in-person appearance April 27 before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was prepared to answer questions about President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget that would increase HHS’ discretionary budget to $127 billion, nearly a 27% increase over the 2021 enacted level.
The Biden administration has floated a budget proposal for fiscal year 2023, which includes $49 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and an additional FDA budget authority of $356 million over the current fiscal year. However, the budget also includes legislative proposals, such as a virtual inspection requirement for device manufacturing facilities and compulsory studies of drug shelf life to evaluate finished drug stability beyond the labeled expiration.
