Post by Harvard Medical School

“The research we conduct using federal funds has to be informed by the needs of the patients we wish to serve,” says Mark Namchuk, Executive Director of Therapeutics Translation at Harvard Medical School. Namchuk has dedicated his career to drug discovery and development. He worries that proposed changes to the federal grant funding process could delay — or derail — the discoveries that lead to new medicines. To answer the complex biology questions necessary to create new medicines, Namchuk says we need the right people, with the right tools, working together on the right plan. A proposal from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) could make that more difficult. For example: ▶︎ Funding science based on political priorities rather than neutral peer review slows progress.  ▶︎ Showing preference to institutions based on overhead costs rather than available technology slows progress.  ▶︎ Making collaborations across institutions more difficult slows progress. "I can think of no other cause that is more aligned with what the American public would like us to do with their funds, than to work hard and move quickly toward a medicine that can help a family member that might be suffering,” he says. Read the OMB proposal that seeks to alter the process by which research is funded, monitored, and shared with the public: https://bit.ly/4wAMaGT

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