The FAIR Foundation is dedicated to fair and equitable distributions of Nation Institutes of Health (NIH) research funds for all diseases, including the sixteen that kill more Americans than AIDS.

www.fairfoundation.org

1/16/06

Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriation Subcommittee
Senate Russell Building 412
Washington, D.C. 20510

RE: Submission of written testimony regarding National Institutes of Health (NIH) disease research allocations

Dear Sirs:

The death rate in our country from AIDS has plummeted as evidenced in 2005 by the 98.5 percent drop in California’s newly infected AIDS patients[i] to 144 (as of 12/31/05) and the 93 percent drop to 100 in all of Illinois’s HIV/AIDS patients for 2004[ii]. In addition, we respectfully bring to Chairman Specter’s attention that this great success includes Pennsylvania where AIDS deaths have dropped to 48 (forty-eight) for 2004.[iii] This success against AIDS is being repeated throughout America, yet AIDS still receives ten percent of the entire National Institutes of Health (NIH) disease research budget.

Such exorbitant funding for AIDS has resulted in unfair allocations for all non-AIDS diseases, including the sixteen[iv] that kill a million more Americans than AIDS annually. For example, cardiovascular disease kills almost a million Americans compared to 18,017 (2003)[v] for AIDS, yet the NIH is spending only $40 on each CVD patient versus $3,084 on each AIDS patient in research.[vi] Diabetes kills more citizens than AIDS and breast cancer combined, yet only $48 is spent on each diabetic in research. More AIDS patients are now dying of hepatitis C than they are of AIDS,[vii] and hepatitis C (HCV) affects 4-5 times as many as AIDS yet only $25 is allocated for each HCV patient.

Regardless if the funding comparison is measured utilizing “allocation per patient,” “allocation per death” or “total allocation” per disease, the great success of AIDS researchers has resulted in funding for AIDS now being disproportionate and inequitable. In addition, hundreds of millions of dollars are raised for AIDS by celebrities and non-profit organizations (amfAR, etc.) while similar efforts do not exist for many other diseases.

The NIH has responded to The FAIR Foundation’s requests to cease the favoritism afforded HIV/AIDS and to reallocate some of the present AIDS dollars to other diseases by referencing global AIDS and the fact that AIDS is communicable (infectious).[viii]

What is the solution for global AIDS—more research? No, the answer to global AIDS is the same solution that has dropped the death rate throughout America, namely: preventive education, the drugs that have been developed that have converted AIDS from an acute illness into a chronic illness (HAART or Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy) and Harm Reduction Policies.

Regarding the “communicable” nature of AIDS, Congress must force realization upon the NIH that simply because an illness is “infectious” does not warrant disproportionate research funding. Patients suffering from non-communicable illnesses such as prostate disease, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, etc. should not be discriminated against because they cannot transmit their disease to another person or because its etiology is congenital or acquired by environmental causes. Furthermore, if one is to use the "communicable" argument in favor of present HIV/AIDS funding, they must use it uniformly. Hepatitis C and the flu (influenza) are also communicable diseases and under the "communicable" definition, should receive increased funding.

An unrecognized factor negatively impacting all non-AIDS diseases is the “compounding effect” of present NIH policy. The present funding total of each disease may be viewed as their “principal balance” for this analogy. If the President announces a 2 percent increase in NIH funding, the increase in AIDS funding will be approximately $60 million whereas Alzheimer’s disease will receive only $14 million and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) $1 million even though those two diseases kill, respectively, three and nine times more Americans than AIDS. Each year the additional increases in the “principle balance,” or total funding, results in the “compounding interest effect” that increases the disproportionate funding for AIDS. Consequently, the gap in funding between AIDS and all other diseases grows even larger.

Federal budgetary limitations have resulted in a cessation of increases for research funding at the NIH. Therefore, existing allocations must now be re-examined and reallocations made where possible.

The FAIR Foundation (FAIR is an acronym for “Fair Allocations In Research) is a national organization representing thousands of Americans—concerned citizens—who want the success of AIDS advocates and AIDS researchers recognized with a corresponding change in the allocation priorities of the NIH. On behalf of our members we are respectfully requesting that a portion of AIDS research allocations be reevaluated and redistributed now that the existing medications and extensive prevention programs for this illness have significantly mitigated its threat in our country.

We are including 15 brochures, one for each Subcommittee member and we thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Richard Darling, DDS                                           Waldo Concepcion, M.D., FACS
President and CEO, The FAIR Foundation                Board of Directors, The FAIR Foundation
National Public Citizen of the Year (NASW-03)        Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery;                                                                                         Associate Chief, Div. of Transplantation
                                                                      Stanford University Medical Center

Leonard J. Morse, M. D.                                        Donald Hillebrand, MD
Commissioner of Public Health, Worcester, MA           Medical Director, Liver Transplantation
Chair Emeritus, AMA Council on Ethical and               Scripps Green Hospital
Judicial Affairs
Past President, MA Med. Society & Boston Med. Library

[i] http://www.dhs.ca.gov/aids/Statistics/pdf/Stats2005/Dec05AIDSmerged.pdf Page two
CA Office of AIDS – patients infected in 2005 who died in 2005

[ii] http://fairfoundation.org/states/illinois_AIDS_deaths.htm

[iii] http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/health/lib/health/epidemiology/2004BiAnnual2PA_AIDS.pdf

[iv] http://www.fairfoundation.org/thesixteen.htm

[v] http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats/2003SurveillanceReport.pdf Page 16

[vi] http://www.fairfoundation.org/factslinks.htm

[vii] http://fairfoundation.org/specter_letter_hcv_in_aids_pts.pdf

[viii] http://www.fairfoundation.org/nihletter.htm