The announcement that Dr. Francis S. Collins will be nominated by the Obama Administration to head the National Institutes of Health(NIH) reminds the Medicine Man why he is a neighbor of the facility. I am fond of saying I choose to live and work within the shadows of NIH and the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) so that I do not miss any emerging trends that will impact life sciences areas.
These agencies’ actions and expenditures truly drive the process in their respective areas. Matter of fact, without doubt, NIH represents the most important source of research dollars in the world. It will spend $4 billion on research in the next 14 months and award an estimated $37 billion in research grants. Transparency requires me to admit that I am a toady for NIH and FDA. Now, with that confession out there, I want to assure you folks, that your hard-earned dollars will be well spent.
By the way, Medicine Man predicts that Dr. Collins, a geneticist who led the government’s efforts to sequence the human genome, will sail through the legislation nomination process and will win confirmation.
