In a doctor to doctor exchange of letters, Dr. Collins answers Dr. Coburn’s questions about the need for legislative mandates directing the NIH and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take action on disease-specific research. 

In his response, Dr. Collins states the NIH and Secretary of HHS “do not need legislative mandates to take such actions” while providing examples of how the NIH and HHS Secretary already possess the authority to identify and institute research in areas that are deemed most important for scientific advancement.

Dr. Collins also responds to Dr. Coburn’s inquiry about the NIH’s ability to conduct groundbreaking research without legislative direction by explaining how NIH Institutes and Centers are already “constantly assessing their research plans and portfolios” and citing how the National Cancer Institute is currently researching pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) free of Congressional advisement.  Dr. Collins explains that “if Congress is too proscriptive when it directs the NIH to focus on specific diseases, the agency loses its valued flexibility” and “can limit our ability to follow the best leads in science….that move an entire research field forward in a way that produces maximum benefit to the public.”

In closing, Dr. Collins describes how rapid advancements in treating patients based upon their unique genome has created a practice of “precision medicine” which, could be hindered under Congressional directives that donot provide flexibility and could “run counter to scientific opportunity.”

Additional information here.