How to reboot the bioscience revolution

A coordinated effort is needed

    Lately, the National Institutes of Health has initiated programs to emphasize the translation of discoveries more quickly into applications. But so far it has committed a mere 2% of its $40 billion budget to these programs. Patient advocacy groups like PatientsLikeMe and the Michael J. Fox Foundation are also trying to fill in the gaps to get to cures faster, but the combined budgets of all nonprofits and private institutes last year was less than $2 billion.

    Much more is needed, which is why a momentum has been building among many leaders in the life sciences, patient advocacy and wellness communities to call for a coordinated national effort to accelerate the translation of discoveries into applications -- with proper funding and a comprehensive plan at least on the scale of the original Human Genome Project.

    One articulation of this effort is a short document called The Personalized Health Manifesto, which will be launched this week in Washington, D.C. The Manifesto was developed with funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and with the input of 35 experts that represent divergent points of view - scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, investors, patient advocates, ethicists, lawyers, policymakers, and journalists.

    Transforming a system this entrenched will be thorny, although the good news is that many in biomedicine understand the urgent need to change. For the sake of our health -- and to get our money's worth for the trillions we will spend on health R&D -- let's hope their effort succeeds.