The National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Scientific Management Review Board (SMRB) has voted 12–1 to create a new translational medicine center that would combine several programs to try to get drugs to the market faster. The center would be the base for the $500 million Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) program. This may jeopardize the future of the program’s current administrative base, the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), as the CTSAs make up almost 40% of the NCRR’s $1.3 billion budget. The center would also house the Cures Acceleration Network, the $24 million Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program and the $113 million Molecular Libraries Program. The SMRB made the decision this month so the center could be funded in the government’s 2012 fiscal year. NIH Director Francis Collins has appointed a team to assess the possible outcomes of establishing the center and will give the proposal to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who must sign off on it. Unless Congress rejects it within the next 180 days, the plan will move forward.

Source: Nature News