FasterCures Applauds Choice of Dr. Francis Collins to Helm NIH

Swift confirmation urged for renowned geneticist and research pioneer.

FasterCures enthusiastically greets today's announcement of Dr. Francis
Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health. We urge Congress to move with deliberate speed through the confirmation process,
 and look forward to working with Dr. Collins and his staff to help chart 
a new course for NIH.



FasterCures is confident that Collins is an excellent choice to lead a
revitalized, modern NIH capable of making a huge contribution to improving the health of the world, and finding cures and treatments for the diseases that rob us of our loved ones. We call on Dr. Collins to begin the process of retraining the focus of NIH, toward outcomes-centered research and clinical research, in order to most efficiently work toward that goal.





With a budget of almost $30 billion, NIH is responsible for nearly
one-third of the biomedical research funding in the United States. It is a massive entity with boundless potential for breakthroughs; the Collins
nod is a positive step toward realizing that potential. During his 
tenure as head of the National Human Genome Research Institute, Dr.
Collins led the effort to crack the human DNA sequence. Now, as NIH
director, he has the opportunity, the resources, and the authority to push the Institutes in an equally groundbreaking direction.

"We have a great need to cure the diseases and illnesses that afflict so many of our national and global neighbors," said FasterCures COO Margaret Anderson. "With new leadership comes new opportunity. Under Dr. Collins's leadership, NIH is positioned to be a global leader in the search for cures. We need to ask more of our research enterprise - take greater risks, abandon the ethos of caution that guides government
entities and challenge the accepted limits. Dr. Collins's groundbreaking work on the genome project signals his willingness to make scientific leaps of faith. Our capacity for scientific discovery is limited only by our own timidity. This appointment could mark a new day in biomedical research."