Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation President J. Donald Capra, M.D., testified before the United States House of Representatives today.
Speaking before the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Capra urged Congress to increase medical research funding. Specifically, he advocated for increases in the budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the Institutes’ IDeA (Institutional Development Award) Program.
Capra testified that limited funds at the National Institutes of Health have created a growing crisis in medical research. “The ‘flat budget’ since 2003 has had a major impact on both the progress of science and the attractiveness of careers in our field, as the shrinking numbers of grants, tight competition and increased number of scientists competing for the dollars has created a dismal mood within our ranks,” the OMRF president told Congress.
“We cannot survive another year of flat appropriations and expect to make headway against the scourges of mankind,” testified Capra.
Capra devoted a significant portion of his testimony to the IDeA Program, an initiative created in 1993 that has received substantial support from Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Warr Acres). The program sets aside medical research funding for the 25 states—including Oklahoma—that are below the national average in per capita funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Since its inception, the program’s annual budget has increased from $2 million to its current level of $220 million. However, the program grew little from 2003 to 2005, and in 2006 it suffered its first budget cut.
“This program has resulted in at least one program of about $3 million per year for each of the 25 states—grants that have been instrumental in providing both technology and support for outreach programs into rural areas,” Capra told Congress. “In our state of Oklahoma, they have been a dramatic success.”
Since 1999, Oklahoma’s IDeA funding has increased from less than $1 million to almost $17 million in 2005. Of that figure, $6 million went to OMRF. “My organization, OMRF, has been remarkably transformed because of these funds,” testified Capra, who told Congress about state-of-the-art genetics and magnetic resonance imaging facilities made possible with the help of IDeA grants.
Capra closed his testimony with the story of Jeanne Morgan, a woman with a deadly blood infection whose life was saved by a drug born at OMRF—a drug that began with research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health. “This is the power of NIH research,” he said, “the power to save lives.”
A high-resolution photo of Capra, as well as a written copy of his testimony, is available upon request.
About OMRF:
Celebrating its 60th birthday in 2006, OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences.
