Biden asks Congress to create DARPA-like health research agency

President Joe Biden’s FY22 budget request includes $6.5 billion to create an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. It also asks for a $2 billion increase in NIH funding that would bring the total to $51 billion.

The new entity, if Congress complies with the request, would be modelled on the U.S. Defense Research Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), a defense department agency that has catalyzed scientific breakthroughs including in antibody therapies and mRNA technologies that have been critical in the fight against COVID-19. Unlike NIH, DARPA invests solely in high-risk, high-reward technologies aimed at achieving specific goals, and it takes a hands-on mission-driven approach to managing projects. ...