WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) discussed the importance of fair health research funding for Indiana universities with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Bhattacharya during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing titled “Modernizing the National Institutes of Health: Faster Discoveries, More Cures.“
Senator Banks said, “Indiana is home to three R1 research institutions, Indiana University, Purdue, and Notre Dame. Just to give a few examples, IU is making groundbreaking discoveries into early onset Alzheimer’s research treatments. Purdue is focused on treatments for opioid addiction and pioneering the science of suppressing cancer-related genes is just one example. Notre Dame is exploring how to make malaria less resistant to antibiotics. Those are just a few examples of the type of important research is going on in my great state to make Americans healthier…. Despite having the countries largest medical school at Indiana University and several top-notch research institutions, Indiana only got about $350 million of NIH funding last year…. To contrast that, the state of Massachusetts, which is virtually the same size as my state, received nearly $3 billion last year in NIH funding. What’s going on here? Can you explain why schools on the coasts seem to get more NIH funding that schools and/or states like my state that’s doing a lot of research as well?”