Congress passes bill for pediatric research

Congress sent the National Pediatric Research Network Act -- which would allow NIH to award funding to support research consortia focused on preventing, diagnosing or treating pediatric diseases or conditions -- to President Obama to be signed into law. The legislation does not include a funding mechanism, but a spokesperson for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who introduced the bill in February, said it "asks the NIH to re-conceptualize how pediatric research grants are set up, to allow for clinicians and research institutions to collaborate more easily and combine resources and data more readily." The bill specifies that an "appropriate number" of awards go to consortia that conduct clinical trials for rare pediatric diseases or conditions.

Nancy Goodman, founder and executive director of the not-for-profit Kids v Cancer, said having cooperative groups and consortia will "enable researchers to accrue children to trials faster and find better treatments" for children with serious diseases including cancer. ...