Good Day BIO: House moves on climate funding

House Appropriators signaled a major commitment to confronting climate change this week by providing more than $347 million in USDA funding in its FY22 funding bill, which passed out of committee markup.

ICYMI: The House Appropriations Committee marked up the FY22 funding bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

“The bill provides discretionary funding of $26.55 billion—a critical increase of $2.851 billion, more than 10 percent—above 2021,”according to the press release. “In total, the bill includes $196.7 billion for both discretionary programs funded on an annual basis and mandatory programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” 

The bill would provide $347.4 million to USDA “to address the impacts of climate change.” The investment would include “research to monitor, measure, and mitigate climate change, accelerate climate smart agriculture practices, reduce greenhouse gases, and advance clean energy technologies.” 

It also would provide “important investments to ensure equitable participation in USDA programs” and “advance racial justice.” This includes “increases for extension, research, and capacity grants at our 1890 land grants, 1994 land grants, and Hispanic serving institutions to help strengthen the pipeline for the future of agriculture. It also provides funding to improve outreach and program access to historically underserved communities and provides a healthy increase for USDA’s Office of Civil Rights above the request.”

Read: What USDA’s doing about racial justice and equity 

The bill also provides a $257 million topline increase for FDA. The investment would include “modernizing FDA’s data infrastructure to better ensure the safety and security of the food and medical supply chain.” 

What’s next? The Committee will mark up the FY22 Labor-HHS funding bill when they return from the July 4 recess.

Black Americans have lost 3.25 years of life expectancy and Hispanic Americans have lost 3.88 years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research—just the latest data demonstrating the need to address health inequities. One solution: improving clinical trial diversity. Last week, BIO’s first-ever Clinical Trial Diversity Summit explored the scale of the problem and possible solutions.

Addressing insufficient diversity in clinical trials now will ensure health inequities are not exacerbated in the future—for COVID-19, and other diseases, explains our reporter J.P. Carroll. When therapies, vaccines, and medicines in the pipeline are developed while including all patients they will serve, it ensures that all sectors of the larger population benefit.

There are a lot of factors contributing to the lack of diversity—including historic mistrust among communities of color, as well as the fact that large institutions running clinical trials are not spending enough time with underrepresented communities, as Dr. Elena V. Rios, President & CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association and President of the National Hispanic Health Foundation explained. 

It's important historically underserved and underrepresented communities are directly involved in the process of “co-creating” trials, said Dr. Randall C. Morgan, Jr., President and CEO of the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute. 

There are concrete things we can do, too, such as...

• Be flexible to the realities of trial participants, by facilitating transportation and providing evening and weekend scheduling for participants who cannot take time off work.
• Trial staff should be properly educated—and diverse themselves. It’s important to conduct implicit bias training, noted Dr. Melanie Ivarsson, Senior VP of Clinical Development at Moderna.
• Commit to communicating results to patients and staying in touch in the long term, said Dr. Ted Love, CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT). Patients want to know trial results.

The bottom line: “We must do better. It is time to do more. It is unacceptable for some people to suffer more than others. It’s unacceptable for them to lack access to life-saving cures and treatments,” said BIO President and CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath at the event.

Read the full recap.

Learn more about the BIOEquality Agenda.

Listen to the I am BIO podcast episode on improving clinical trial diversity: Good Trouble for Good Medicine. 

More Health Care News: 

Bloomberg: J&J COVID shot neutralizes Delta variant, company says
“The shot neutralized the delta variant within 29 days of a first dose, and protection matured and improved over time, the company said.” 

CNBC: How CRISPR gene editing will treat diseases in future
“The latest breakthrough, the result of a trial between biotech company Regeneron and Boston-based startup Intellia Therapeutics [co-founded by Nobel Laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna], treated a rare disease after being given as an IV infusion.”

President Biden’s Friday: Delivering remarks on the June jobs report at 10:15 AM ET, then meeting with the LA Dodgers, the 2020 World Series Champions. This afternoon, he’ll participate in a naturalization ceremony to welcome new citizens ahead of Independence Day, then deliver remarks at the National Education Association’s annual meeting. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The House passed its $715 billion transportation infrastructure bill yesterday, which is “loaded…with climate change spending,” says The New York Times. (Interestingly, it’s also the first bill in a decade to include earmarks, totaling $5.7 billion.) Enjoy the holiday recess.