There's Definitely Something Wrong with This Picture Fiscal year 2008, Actual (not estimated) NIH (National Institute of Health) allocation of spendi

There's Definitely Something Wrong with This Picture

Fiscal year 2008, Actual (not estimated) NIH (National Institute of Health) allocation of spending

DISEASE (NIH)-RESEARCH BUDGET
HIV/AIDS research -- 2.9 billion.
Substance abuse research -- 1.76 2 billion.
Drug abuse (NIDA only) -- 1 billion
Obesity research -- 664 million.
Alcohol research -- 452 million.

Depression research -- 402 million

Tobacco research -- 311 million.

Sexually transmitted diseases 245 million.

Food safety research -- 244 million.

Arthritis 232 million.

Sleep research 225 million.

Multiple sclerosis research 169 million

Parkinson's disease research 152 million.

Youth violent research 115 million.

Pneumonia research 93 million.

Infertility research 73 million.

Crohn's disease research, 51 billion.

ALS research 43 million.

Suicide research -- 39 million

Teenage Pregnancy research 21 million
http://report.nih.gov/rcdc/categories/



ALS - Woefully Under-Funded (NIH) Compared to Other Diseases

MS (multiple sclerosis ) seems to offer a reasonable standard of comparison as it has about the roughly similar incidence as ALS (10,000 new cases per year for MS vs.7000 for ALS). There are approximately 400,000 people in the US living with MS vs. about 30,000 with ALS. Why the difference in prevalence if the diseases have a somewhat similar incidence rate? The major factor is lethality. MS patients live a normal life span while, ALS patients have a much shorter life span. If ALS were not such an effective killer, its prevalence rate would obviously be much higher. It seems reasonable that the two diseases should have nearly equal public funding, since they both occur with the similar frequency, but this is not the case. NIH budgets 169 million on MS research but $43 million on ALS? . It is immoral to base funding on prevalence in the context of similar incidence rates, thereby penalizing ALS patients for the lethality of their disease

The next disease for comparison is Huntington’s disease, another disorder caused by degeneration of brain cells, i.e. neurons, in certain areas of the brain. Its incidence and prevalence rate are much lower than ALS and patients usually live 10-25 years after diagnosis. Yet, this disease has an NIH budget of $51 million versus, $43 million for ALS.
For the, 3rd and final comparison, HIV/AIDS. This illness has a large incidence (85,000) and prevalence (1,100,000) The number of patients who die from this disease each year is only a bit more than twice the number of ALS deaths, yet HIV/AIDS has a research budget of nearly $3 BILLION! vs. $41m for ALS-?

CONCLUSION I: Given its incidence rates and high lethality, ALS is woefully under-funded compared to other diseases or and this may explain, at least in part, why so little has been learned about this disease since Lou Gehrig’s death 65 years ago and why there have been no significant advances in treatment. It does not get the recognition it deserves because its high lethality severely limits the number of Americans who are living with the disease at any one point in time.

RECOMMENDATION I: The NIH budget for ALS research should be immediately increased to $110m or the same amount as MS.

The fact that the low prevalence rate of ALS, is directly due to its high lethality, therefore does not provide any incentive for major pharmaceutical companies to search for a cure. The only drug for ALS, Rilutek, about 15 years old now, extends life only 2-3 months, is used by many patients at high cost, yet the maker of the drug, Aventis, claims that it loses substantial money on Rilutek. MS, in comparison, with its 400,000 prevalence in the US alone, presents significant incentive for drug companies to invest in research. In fact, there are 5 meds that have proven very beneficial and sales are big. Avonex, for example, had close to $1b in sales in the last year. Another drug, Copaxone, may have the greatest potential to alter the course of MS and sales, once the issue of side effects is resolved, should be huge. If we accept the view that it costs the companies $800 m over 10 years to develop and bring to market a successful drug, then about $4 billion has been spent to produce these disease mitigating medications, or $400 m per year, not including current research.
The FDA offers an orphan disease program to provide incentives to companies to invest in research of diseases having a prevalence of fewer than 200,000. The program provides tax incentives and other advantages for only small grants; unfortunately the incentives offered are too small to interest large companies with all their research potential.

Conclusion II: Because of ALS’s high lethality, prevalence will always be low. As a consequence, big pharma will not have the incentive to invest in ALS research and the high tech power of drug companies won’t be harnessed to find new therapeutic agents in the fight against ALS.

Recommendation II: Federal health agencies must provide the incentive to big pharma to invest in ALS research. The FDA Orphan Disease Program must be substantially increased to accomplish this. $80m per year in incentives must be allotted to get major companies interested in working on this research. Funding could include a combination of grants, tax credits and exclusive marketing rights, etc. The grants could be reduced as companies come closer to marketing the new agents.

Under-funding of ALS will not be righted without our ( PALS ) active intervention. I am asking for your help on behalf of both the 35,000+ Americans living with the disease today and the estimated 70,000 that ill die every 10 years , and the 7000 that will die just this year, until a cure is found. ALS has been neglected far too long.
Sincerely,
Edward W. Esparza
(pals since 2005)
"For PALS, the cost of waiting/doing nothing, is simply too high."