National Institutes of Health Funding for Research

• We support the President's proposal to increase the overall National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget by 3.2 percent to $32.1 billion in FY 2011.
• With the release of his FY 2011 budget proposal, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to science and research by making each a priority amid efforts to limit spending.  However, to sustain the gains generated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the FY 2011 appropriation for NIH must be no less than $35 billion.
• NIH has been functioning with a $35 billion budget for two years and we cannot afford to lose ground as the nation struggles out of an economic recession.

Patent Reform

• We support a consensus-based approach to patent law reform, which would improve the patent system in ways that would benefit all sectors of the U.S. economy through enhancing patent quality and the efficiency, objectivity, predictability, and transparency of the patent system. 
• Accelerate Colorado supports the bipartisan bill that was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2009 and also supports the new bipartisan compromise that was recently released by Senators Leahy and Sessions.
• There has been no movement on patent reform legislation in the House of Representatives this session; however, discussions are currently taking place between the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. 
• We thank you for supporting the Cures Acceleration Network which will award grants to accelerate high-need cures, and benefit smaller bioscience companies facing the “valley of death” period in their business.
• Please support the $500 million request for funding allocated to this program for these grants (which is separate from the amount allocated to NIH for this program).

Support Strong Intellectual Property Rights

• Strong intellectual property protection creates the necessary incentives for biomedical research because drug development takes huge investments in money, time, and effort.
• It costs nearly $1 billion and a takes a decade or more of work to bring a new medicine to market. And only about 1 out of every 5000 compounds tested reaches the drugstore shelf. Without the right to make a reasonable profit from its discoveries, the industry could not take the risks – or bear the costs – of invention.