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Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Research Budget Maintains Record Level
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Research funding for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis through the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) held steady in 2010 at a record $16 million. The total includes $13 million in base funding plus $3 million in funding from the Stimulus Bill.
Psoriasis is a complex disease of the immune system that implicates multiple genes plus triggers both known and unknown. Despite this complexity and the severe burden psoriasis imposes, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis research has long been underfunded by the federal government. But these new figures suggest those dark days have been put behind us.
We continue to believe that $20 million is a more appropriate annual level for psoriasis research, based on current funding for comparable diseases. Also, because psoriasis research was neglected for so many years, the aggregate total spent on psoriasis research since 1995 is some $40 million shy of where it would be had psoriasis research funding simply kept pace with the growth of other medical research since that time. The challenge will be maintaining even the current level of research in a federal government that is broke, running $1 trillion deficits annually. Interest payments alone on our federal debt are expected to triple to $500 billion in the year 2015. Can we hope to secure $15 or $20 million for psoriasis research in a federal budget where $500 billion goes just to pay our lenders?
Still, let's be grateful psoriasis is no longer all but ignored, as it was through 2005. Research on potential new treatments is still the best hope for people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
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Other Psoriasis Cure Now resources:
The Psoriasis Social Network, Psoriasis.Name
Psoriasis Treatment Tips by Email
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