Position

As the Baby Boom generation ages, the prevalence and economic burden of age-related diseases and conditions are expected to grow at an unprecedented rate. The impact of aging in America is already being felt as spending on care for individuals suffering from multiple chronic conditions soars to alarming heights. We believe that a steady pace of medical breakthroughs focused on keeping individuals healthier and more independent longer will be necessary if we as a nation are going to face what could become an unmanageable health care and long-term care crisis.

Public investment in basic research, primarily through the NIH, has been found to have a stimulating affect on private sector research and development. However, the NIH’s budget path has hindered discoveries that drive the search for new treatments and interventions in many areas. Progress in the area of aging research has been affected by financially driven decision-making as evidenced by inadequate support for basic research proposals that could not yield immediate benefits but may have led to a better fundamental understanding of how aging factors into the onset of many disabling and deadly diseases. A lack of public focus in investing in aging research has had a noticeable impact on the amount of private R&D funds focused on ways to target aging as a risk factor for disease.

In 2009 the Obama Administration made a significant short-term investment in the NIH through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This funding was intended to create highly skilled job opportunities as well as to restore the nation’s commitment to advancing science and innovation. Approximately $6 million of the Recovery funds are being spent directly on projects that will allow the aging research community to further explore what is already known about how aging can affect the onset of disease. The Alliance believes that the administration and Congress should sustain and increase its investment in the NIH and allow for more rapid innovation in the area of aging research.

Goal: Support at least $1.14 billion in funding for the NIA in FY 2011. Encourage intra-agency collaboration among the NIH institutes, foster an approach to translating research into interventions that achieve a delay in the onset of major age-related diseases and conditions, and raise private sector awareness of aging as a promising area to explore for therapeutic development.