New legislation to increase funding for targeted biomedical research initiatives 

Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led by Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Patty Murray (Wash.), March 3 introduced the National Biomedical Research Act (S. 2624) to increase funding for targeted biomedical research initiatives through a new, reliable funding stream supporting the NIH and FDA.

The bill would create a Biomedical Innovation Fund, which would provide $5 billion per year in new funding to NIH and FDA for select initiatives in years when congressional appropriations to the agencies increase. The fund would supplement not supplant discretionary appropriations for NIH and FDA. Read more details on this legislation.