White House officials on Monday met with health and science leaders to discuss biomedicine and the need for more research funding, reports CNBC.
Here are four things to know.
1. Executives from Celgene, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Vertex Pharmaceuticals joined National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, for the two-hour meeting. Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, and Vice President Mike Pence also attended the meeting. Following the discussion, the group shared their conclusions with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, according to the report.
2. Dr. Collins said the meeting primarily focused on the need to support U.S. biomedicine initiatives. The health and science leaders discussed strategies to ensure the U.S. continues to made medical advances and develop new cures for diseases progress through the field of biomedicine.
"We talked a lot today about how that message gets across — that America wants to support this, that this engine is a big part of who we are; it's a big part of our future," Dr. Collins told CNBC.
3. While the group did not discuss the cost of these biomedical treatments, they did highlight the need for more biomedical research funding. The drug industry executives unanimously agreed they need governmental support for research. "They count on NIH to fund the basic science. Their shareholders would never allow them to fund that kind of science," Dr. Collins told CNBC.
4. Dr. Collins said many young scientists are finding it difficult to secure funding for their research work and others are leaving the country after completing their studies, according to the report.
"We would hope that with some good decision-making that we would get from where we are right now — where if you send your best ideas to NIH, your chance of getting funded is less than 20 percent — back up to a place which was historically more healthy, more like 30 or 35 percent," Dr. Collins told CNBC.
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