Women’s health wins $100M infusion
Jill Biden announces research funding in Cambridge
The Biden administration sent First Lady Jill Biden to Cambridge yesterday to announce a $100 million commitment toward bridging the historical gap in women’s health care research.
In the weeks to come, according to the Biden administration, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will begin accepting “requests for solution” to a list of women’s health care related topics developed by ARPA-H program managers.
The requests will “solicit ideas for novel groundbreaking research and development to address women’s health, as well as opportunities to accelerate and scale tools, products, and platforms with potential for commercialization to improve women’s health outcomes.”
The investment comes, according to the First Lady, after decades of underfunded research into health care issues specific to women and following a long history of women’s medical concerns going ignored by their doctors and the health care industry writ large.
“If you ask any woman in America about her health care, she likely has a story to tell. So you all know her,” Biden said from inside The Engine, a coworking space along Main Street.
“She’s the woman who gets these debilitating migraines but doesn’t know why and she can’t find treatments or options that work for her. She’s the woman whose heart attack isn’t recognized, because her symptoms don’t look like a man’s heart attack, even as heart disease is the leading cause of death among women. She’s the woman going through menopause who visits with her doctor and leaves with more questions than answers,” she said.
President Joe Biden announced a “White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research” in November, which according to his administration is a first-of-its-kind effort to partner federal government resources with private and philanthropic groups to further health care innovation.
It is toward that same end that Biden urged Congress to establish ARPA-H, a program created in the same vein as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, in order to streamline health care research breakthroughs. According to the Biden White House, ARPAH has seen $2.5 billion in funding since its creation.
“We know we have more to do to advance our knowledge and medical treatment for conditions that affect women. ARPAH is joining an HHS-wide effort to take up that challenge,” Health and Human
Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said. “Women are dramatically under-represented in research into critical issues, including coronary issues and autoimmune diseases. Women have their needs overlooked or are left out entirely from scientific and health research overall.”
The $100 million commitment will be followed by an ARPA-H “Proposer’s Day” to be held sometime in March, according to the Biden Administration, when more information about the funding opportunity will be provided.
According to ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn, the aim of the newly announced funding commitment is “to fundamentally change the trajectory of women’s health care and radically accelerate the next generation of discoveries that range from early laboratory proofs of concept that may impact future generations, to products that are ready to be commercialized and launched to start improving women’s health today.
Sen. Ed Markey, who was in attendance alongside his congressional counterpart, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said that the Biden Administration’s monetary commitment to women’s health represented a “rocket” underneath the push for more research into health concerns that affect at least half the U.S. population.
“A vision without funding is an hallucination,” Markey said. “We need, not a sick care system, but a health care system, for women in our country.”
The First Lady seemed to agree.
“We will build a health care system that puts women and their lived experiences at its center,” she said. “Where no woman or girl has to hear that ‘it’s all in your head,’ or, ‘it’s just stress.’” Where women aren’t just an after-thought, but a first-thought. Where women don’t just survive with chronic conditions, but lead long and healthy lives.”