During Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) questioned Dr. Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher at the Science American Association for the Advancement of Science, about the effect of cuts to foreign assistance on biomedical research.
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00:00Senator Durbin. I'm sorry, Senator Shaheen, you were first. I apologize.
00:11That's okay. Thank you, Senator Durbin, and thank you, Chair Collins and Vice
00:15Chair Murray for holding this hearing, and thank you to all of our witnesses for your
00:19very eloquent and powerful and compelling testimony this morning. You know, I'm sorry
00:26that Senator Kennedy left the hearing because I thought he was effective in
00:32pointing out that all of us support biomedical research, that we all think
00:36it's important, but what I think he missed was we all also oppose waste, fraud, and
00:43abuse in these programs. We all also think that the example that he used from
00:49Stanford is one that we all believe should be cracked down on and that that
00:55should not happen in these programs, and so let's not be distracted by that
01:01because that's a red herring. The fact is that I wish we were as concerned about
01:08auditing the Department of Defense as we are about auditing these research grants.
01:14We probably be saving more money, and the reality is that what we're talking about
01:20in terms of this research doesn't save money, it costs money in the long run as
01:25all of you have pointed out so well. Now, Dr. Parikh, I thought you made a very, have
01:34made a very compelling case about our ability to compete with China, and while we focused
01:40on NIH and the FDA today in this hearing, other agencies, USAID, the CDC, our foreign assistance
01:51programs, have also helped form the foundation for global disease surveillance, for our public
01:56health preparedness, and for being able to address the kinds of diseases and cures that we want to
02:05talk about. So, I wonder if you could speak to how the cuts to U.S. foreign assistance, particularly in the global disease
02:15surveillance arena, undermine not just our ability to develop biomedical innovations, but also our national security,
02:23given the risk of drug-resistant diseases and undetected outbreaks that have in the past evolved into global threats.
02:31Thank you, Senator. Please, Dr. Parikh. Thank you, Senator.
02:35Infectious disease doesn't know international boundaries, and you know, something that's happening half a world away can be here in 12 hours.
02:42And so, we have to have the ability to understand what is circulating around the world, and that is a, it's a technological thing,
02:53it's a sociological thing, it is a relationship-based thing. You have to actually build relationships around the world.
03:00And so, you end up with this ability, you know, where there are laboratories in South Africa that can help you identify something,
03:07so that before it gets here, we have some idea of how to prepare. That is an extraordinary thing. It's not theoretical.
03:13It's happened in the past, and it will happen again. But it also, it has this, this element of, of soft power, of relationship building.
03:21There is nothing, there is nothing wrong with the idea that we're going to protect human beings from disease.
03:27In fact, it is the one thing that I think we all share in common. And so, when we as a country project that ability,
03:33when we increase that capacity around the world, we make a difference today in terms of those relationships,
03:41and tomorrow in terms of ensuring that we don't have epidemics that, that become real problematic in this country.
03:48Thank you. I, I agree. And sadly, what we've seen is a pullback in our foreign assistance programs in countries around the world.
03:59And we are now seeing China move in and taking over those programs in ways that not only affect our ability to get that information,
04:07but our national security. You know, I, I often think that if you can't get people to do something for the right reason,
04:15because it's the moral thing to do, sometimes you can get people to do something because it's cost effective to do that.
04:22And Dr. Esham, in New Hampshire, we have, we are developing a real biomedical industry in our state.
04:35That's important to local economies throughout the state.
04:39There are jobs that fuel our small towns and cities.
04:42They are partnering with institutions like Dartmouth and the University of New Hampshire on breakthroughs.
04:50And can you talk, I, I thought you were very effective in talking about the role of the FDA,
04:56but can you talk about what stability at the FDA and NIH means as we're looking at getting private investors
05:06to invest in growth around the country, certainly in our small towns in New Hampshire.
05:14Those private investments have been critical as we've looked at how to build this industry.
05:20Thank you for that question. And I want to say also congratulations.
05:23I have long been a supporter of the proliferation of things like biotechnology and the biopharmaceutical industry across the country.
05:30And it's very exciting to see what's going on in your state.
05:32It is.
05:33They're great jobs.
05:35It's a great community.
05:36I think, you know, the, it's in the title, right?
05:38It's the biomedical research ecosystem.
05:40And so you have foundational research that lead to, you know, help us understand the underlying foundational causes of disease.
05:47That leads us to understand about new targets, new endpoints, new ways to look at diseases,
05:52new ways to think about patient driven medicines.
05:56That is, and then that information and that knowledge is transferred into a clinical trial system where the biopharmaceutical company,
06:03and again, a lot of them are the small companies that you talk about in your state, are really taking that and doing the cutting edge research.
06:09In order for them, they are often pre-revenue.
06:12They do not have any money.
06:13They're not making anything on the market.
06:15They are on the edge of discovery of next generation medical interventions.
06:20And what they need is, is a ability to understand that the regulatory agency is capable, has the expertise required to evaluate on a scientifically based foundation,
06:33how to evaluate the safety and efficacies of these medicines.
06:36And they need to understand that they have the capacity to move things forward in a timely manner, even if it's a no.
06:43A timely no is better than a long limbo period.
06:47That has profound impacts on the private investment community.
06:52And money is global.
06:54And so I think we have to be realistic about that.
06:57So the stronger the FDA here is in the United States, the more we can keep building biotech hubs like in your state.
07:05Thank you all very much.
07:06I hope you feel like you heard a lot of support, bipartisan support on this committee for the work that you're doing.