Congress creates ARPA-H, increases NIH funding

The FY22 government funding bill passed by the Senate Thursday night will create and fund ARPA-H, a high priority for the Biden administration and patient advocates. The agency is intended to fund high-impact, high-risk life sciences projects using approaches similar to those the DARPA has employed to jump-start the Internet and make fundamental advances that laid the groundwork for mRNA vaccines and rapid discovery of therapeutic mAbs. 

The bill, which President Joe Biden is expected to sign, seeks to appropriate $1 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to spend by Sept. 30, 2024. When he proposed creating of ARPA-H, the president requested an appropriation of $6.5 billion to cover its first three years of operations. The now abandoned Build Back Better Act included $3 billion for three years of APRA-H’s activities. ...