Sen­ate spend­ing bill slash­es funds for Biden's planned break­through drug ac­cel­er­a­tor at NIH

With the an­nounce­ment that Fran­cis Collins, the NIH’s long­time head, is leav­ing at the end of the year, a flashy new idea from Pres­i­dent Joe Biden to ac­cel­er­ate more can­cer, di­a­betes and Alzheimer’s drugs at the NIH ap­pears to have lost steam.

The Sen­ate Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee on Mon­day un­veiled its pro­pos­al for the NIH’s spend­ing bill, which pro­pos­es just $2.4 bil­lion for this Biden project, to be known as the Ad­vanced Re­search Projects Agency for Health or ARPA-H. Biden had ini­tial­ly re­quest­ed $6.5 bil­lion, and the House Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee signed off on $3 bil­lion ear­li­er this sum­mer.

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