NIH budgets $24M to jump-start programs

The NIH has long been the godfather of preclinical research work that later went on to form the foundation IP for emerging biotech companies. Now the newly flush agency plans to start funding preclinical programs designed specifically to hand off to developers.

The NIH is budgeting $24 million to get drugs for rare and neglected diseases through the crucial preclinical stage, to the point where a developer can pick up the program and go directly into the clinic with it. The NIH can help advance drugs that have a limited market potential and biotech companies can pick up programs that will have a higher chance of success and a lower cost of development.

"The federal government may be the only institution that can take the financial risks needed to jumpstart the development of treatments for these diseases, and NIH clearly has the scientific capability to do the work," said NIH Acting Director Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D.

For an industry in bad need of good news, the federal government's decision to beef up research spending has been a tonic for biotech. This new program is likely to earn plenty of kudos as well.

- read the NIH release

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