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 In a letter addressed to Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and minority
leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, HHS Secretary Sylvia
Burwell said she was allocating $34 million in funding to the
National Institutes of Health and $47 million to the Biomedical
Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to work on Zika
vaccines.
Burwell said the funding was intended to keep Zika vaccine research
going despite the lack of funding from U.S. lawmakers, who left for
summer recess before allocating any funding to Zika research and
preparedness.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus has spread to more than 50 countries
and territories since the outbreak began last year in Brazil. On
Thursday, Governor Rick Scott said state health officials have
identified three additional people in the affected area with locally
transmitted Zika, bringing the total to 25.
The Obama administration in February requested $1.9 billion to fight
Zika, but congressional lawmakers have been considering a much
smaller sum. A bill providing $1.1 billion was blocked by Democrats
after Republicans attached language to stop abortion-provider
Planned Parenthood from using that government funding for healthcare
services, mainly in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico.
The Republican legislation also would siphon off unused money under
President Barack Obama's signature 2010 healthcare law to combat
Zika. In addition, Democrats balked at a Republican provision that
they said would gut clean water protections.
The new bolus of funds from HHS comes on top of the $589 million in
repurposed funds previously allocated for Ebola efforts. HHS has
said these funds will run out at the end of August.
At a press briefing in Washington, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he
needs $33 million to prepare to move the first potential Zika
vaccine to the second phase of human clinical trials. The first
phase of that testing is expected to end in late November or
December.
Fauci said the health secretary has the authority to transfer 1
percent of NIH’s $33 billion budget per year from one Institute to
the other. He said the director of the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins,
will decide which existing programs the funds will be drawn from.
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“He will probably do it on a prorated basis across the Institutes,”
he said.
Fauci said the budget transfer will not fill the longer-term NIH
funding needs to fight the virus and to develop a second or third
potential vaccine candidate. Drugs frequently fail to realize the
promise they show in early trials.
"We still need about $196 million more,” he said.
Fauci said the health secretary’s action was essentially one of
desperation given the failure of Congress to authorize additional
funding.
Taking money from other research programs “is extremely damaging to
the biomedical research enterprise,” he said. “We’re taking money
away from cancer, diabetes, all those things.”
Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, executive director of the National Association
of County and City Health Officials, said at the briefing that local
health authorities are similarly siphoning off money from other
programs.
"We're robbing Peter to pay Paul," he said.
In her letter, Burwell said the $47 million in funding for BARDA
will allow the agency to enter into contracts with key partners to
develop vaccines. But, she said BARDA will need an estimated $342
million in additional funding to continue its work with outside
partners in the development of vaccines, diagnostics and pathogen
inactivation technology used to protect the U.S. blood supply.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Toni Clarke in
Washington; editing by Grant McCool and Bernard Orr)
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