Questions

What is the need in these disorders?

Federal funding for research and development into treatments for neurological disorders significantly lags the funding earmarked for diseases like AIDS and cancer.

While the federal government, through the National Institutes of Health, funds 36% of all U.S. medical research, only .5% of those funds are earmarked for research into neurodegenerative diseases via the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS).

After several years of expansion, the NIH is about to experience slow or no growth. As a result, it is anticipated that only about 15% of approved NIH grants will actually be funded, and this number may be lower still in the next few years.

More broadly, NIH funding is less than 1% of total federal expenditures and just .5% of the total economic cost of illness in the U.S.