New Competition from the X Prize Foundation Aimed at the Genomes of Centenarians

The Archon Genomics X Prize Presented by medco® offers $10 million to the first team of researchers that can quickly and affordably sequence 100 genomes—of people at least 100 years old that is!

Last month, the FDA published a long awaited report on biomedical innovation, their only course of defense in the recent onslaught against the agency. Historically, the FDA has played a significant role in the protection of our health, assuming sole responsibility for the approval of medical products, but it appears that congressional confidence in the agency is waning.

Here at the Alliance for Aging Research we are huge fans of the African naked mole rat. Now, why would anyone love a 4-inch squinty-eyed hairless wrinkled rodent with buck teeth?

On June 26, 2011 I was interviewed by BioCentury This Week to share the Alliance for Aging Research’s impressions on the fifth reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administration’s Prescription Drug User Fee program. Thanks to Congress, we and other active patient groups were able to lend an early voice in helping to shape how user fees might be used to help speed the delivery of better treatments and cures to patient in need of relief from Alzheimer’s, Cancer, Parkinson’s and many more diseases.

As you’ll see from the segments below, we believe that the FDA heard the calls from the patient community loud and clear. Many elements that are slated to receive support from user fees can have a meaningful impact on the future availability of beneficial therapies for unserved patient populations. However, some other groups involved in the reauthorization process do not feel their voices resonated as much. They will take their cases to Congress in hopes that their agendas will become a part of the bill required to renew this program. In evaluating these policy agendas we urge members of Congress to contemplate why these agendas were not incorporated along with that of patients in the reauthorization process already. In doing so we hope that Congress will recognize the real purpose of the user fee program-it is to ensure the timely review of products submitted to the FDA. Remembering this will not only enable FDA to do its job more effectively, but it will also benefit patients.

Twenty-five years ago a young lawyer fresh out of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government came to a fledgling group called the Aging Research Policy Council volunteering free legal services. But first he needed support for pro bono work from his firm’s senior partner, Sargent Shriver.

For years we have been urging federal funding increases in biomedical research by citing the countdown to the first wave of Baby Boomers turning age 65 and joining the Medicare rolls.

When world class scientists and physicians call for a global project to modify human aging, it is time for policymakers in Washington and elsewhere to take notice.

The sudden and unexplained death of a beloved grandfather set Robert Neil Butler on the road to be a pioneer in the science and medicine of health and aging.