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**Short Summary**

Senators Lieberman and Cochran have introduced legislation to increase
the capacity of the NIH to produce effective diagnostics and treatments
for the world's most burdensome diseases. The NIH currently invests \$28
billion dollars in essential basic science research. The Cures Act
invests \$5 billion dollars in translational research -- research that
develops basic science knowledge into the actual products that improve
human health. In 2003, the National Academy of Science (NAS) reported to
Congress on ways the NIH as an organization could "revitalize" itself to
meet 21^st^ century health challenges. Cures acts on the NAS report's
six major recommendations while providing a new vital mission-driven
approach to publicly funded research with the goal of disease cure.
**Cures will**:

-   *Create an American Center for Cures (ACC) in the NIH to orchestrate
    focused research and development of solutions to pressing ailments*.
    The ACC will create an organization and funding strategy for
    research that prioritizes our nation's research investment towards
    the world's most important diseases and diseases with particular
    research promise. The ACC will fund innovative and collaborative
    research, breakdown bottlenecks in the translational research
    process, and facilitate information exchange.

-   *Establish a Director of Cures who will be aided by a council
    comprised of key health experts and stakeholders who will assess
    domestic and global health needs.* To use public funds effectively,
    a centralized mechanism to track research on health threats is
    necessary. A Council will inform the ACC Director on biomedical
    needs, technical feasibility issues, and current research
    breakthroughs.

-   *Create a Health Advanced Projects Agency for research promotion.* A
    research projects agency will promote strategic risk-taking and
    follow a "challenge model" to support innovative multidisciplinary
    research between NIH Institutes, other federal agencies, grantees
    and business partners, for projects with the potential for
    significant health impact. Project Funding will be flexible and
    outcomes based.

-   *Promote the innovative efforts of small to medium sized companies.*
    The ACC will support firms developing promising therapeutics and
    diagnostics requiring assist-ance in traditionally under-funded
    stages of research and development\-- the R&D Valley of Death.
    Funding will be available for both preclinical and clinical work.

-   *Strengthen the clinical research process.* Clinical trials are
    essential to ensuring the safety and efficacy of new products. The
    ACC will streamline clinical trial protocols to supply the public
    with new treatments in a timelier, more efficient, and more
    economical way. It will augment NIH training funds to create a
    future clinical research workforce. It will establish a clinical
    trial registry and results database to promote information sharing
    and to avoid duplicative efforts.

-   *Facilitate complete and efficient transfer of intellectual property
    from development at the molecular level to clinical trials and into
    production.* Active participation of the commercial sector in
    development is critical. An Office of Technology Transfer in the ACC
    will catalog and disseminate the NIH translational research
    portfolio and oversee NIH intellectual property licensing.