WHO:- Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Institutes of Health
- Senators Richard J. Durbin and Richard C. Shelby
- Robert J. Beall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
- Moderator: Margaret Anderson, Executive Director, FasterCures / The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions
WHERE: Dirksen Senate Office Building, G-11
WHY: “The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has shown the way, has lit up the path… and what’s been learned from CF can be extrapolated, generalized, to hundreds of other diseases.”- Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health
The past few decades have brought exciting scientific breakthroughs necessary to understand, diagnose, and treat many diseases. However, the ability to translate exciting advancements into treatments that can help patients severely lags behind the pace of innovation. On average, it takes 15 years to turn a scientific discovery into a viable therapy. For the millions of Americans who live with chronic and fatal diseases, this is simply too long to wait.
Fifty years ago, people with cystic fibrosis did not live long enough to attend grade school, but today, there are more than 30 drugs in a CF drug development pipeline and the median life expectancy for someone with the disease is 37 years.
NIH Director Francis S. Collins, Dr. Robert J. Beall of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Margaret Anderson of FasterCures will address:
- What lessons can be learned from the cystic fibrosis successes that can map the way for other diseases?
- How can federal investment at the NIH and other agencies be leveraged to answer important scientific questions in a way that accelerates the discovery and development of medical solutions for deadly and debilitating diseases?
- How can we bridge the “Valley of Death” between basic science discoveries and the creation of new therapies for patients?
No comments:
Post a Comment