The funding is in place for a new medical research agency proposed by Congressman Fred Upton. He tells WSJM News the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, would operate alongside the NIH and CDC to research less-common diseases.
“ARPA-H is done,” Upton said. “That’s in…So now, it’s often a two step process. An authorization and an appropriation. It doesn’t work unless you have an appropriation, the actual money to get it done, but now we want to make sure that it works. So, I actually have a call later this week with the secretary of HHS to figure out how this is going to be managed.”
Upton says the budget bill approved this month by Congress included $1 billion for ARPA-H. The agency is being created as part of his Cures 2.0 legislation. Cures 2.0 is the follow up to 21st Century Cures, the medical research and drug development bill Upton ushered through Congress in 2016. Upton says the new ARPA-H is intended to be modeled after the Department of Defense’s DARPA program.
