Psoriasis Cure Now applauds record government psoriasis research funding

Psoriasis Cure Now today applauded Congress and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for delivering a record $10 million in psoriasis research funding during fiscal year 2007. Psoriasis research has traditionally been underfunded at NIH. Since 1995, NIH funding on other diseases has risen 159% (before inflation), but psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis research had been stuck between $5 and $6 million every year from FY 1995 until FY 2006, when it reached $8 million, and now $10 million in FY 2007. [Click on the chart to see a larger version of it.]

"Psoriasis Cure Now was founded in 2005 because it was disturbing to see psoriasis research funding not even keep pace with inflation as research on other diseases more than doubled," said Michael Paranzino, president of Psoriasis Cure Now. "We are thrilled to see Congress and NIH working to reverse this funding shortfall with the second significant funding increase in a row."

Even after two years of strong growth, psoriasis research at NIH remains $40 million short of what would have been invested in psoriasis research had its funding merely kept pace with NIH's growth since 1995. Psoriasis Cure Now has urged policymakers to increase annual psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis research to $20 million by 2010, reflecting the disease's severe impact on millions of Americans and the years that were lost as psoriasis funding languished.

"Many people helped get funding for psoriasis research moving in the right direction," Paranzino added, "from the citizens who wrote letters to and visited with their lawmakers, to leaders like Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Ralph Regula and Jim Gerlach, Chairmen Tom Harkin and David Obey, and Senator Arlen Specter. The NIH and NIAMS leadership also deserve our thanks for supporting valuable research that will lead to treatment breakthroughs in the years ahead. With new research linking psoriasis to increased risk of heart attack and even premature death, continued increases in psoriasis research could not be more timely."