Legendary Drug Industry Executives Warn U.S. Science Cuts Endanger the Future

Biomedical research and innovation are crucial to improving America’s health, global competitiveness, and economic growth, as both President Obama and House Majority Leader Cantor have stressed in recent weeks. In the wake of the sequester, and as the President and Congress move ahead with budget negotiations, now is the time for both parties to translate into action their bipartisan commitment to our nation’s science investment by restoring the budgets of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other science agencies that support basic biomedical research in universities and medical schools in all 50 states – an area of federal spending that is highly productive and a critical investment. History shows that investment in basic research pays. Research supported by NIH has been key to reducing mortality from heart disease and stroke by more than 60 percent since 1970, with an economic return estimated at $2.5 trillion per year. HIV/AIDS, which once threatened to overrun our hospital systems, is manageable today without hospitalization thanks to breakthroughs enabled by NIH, with total savings of $1.4 trillion to date.

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