Planta Med 2016; 82(S 01): S1-S381
DOI: 10.1055/s-0036-1596190
Abstracts
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Natural products research applications and awards at NIH: A five year analysis

J Berzhanskaya
1   National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
,
DC Hopp
1   National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
14 December 2016 (online)

 

Last year's award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Drs. Campbell, Omura and Tu highlighted the great potential of natural products research to yield invaluable treatments with the power to vastly improve human health. This award also served as an ironic reminder that despite this illustrious history, the current state of natural products research is in a precarious position. The major pharmaceutical industry in the United States has largely abandoned natural products screening for a variety of reasons. As a result, government funding is the only significant source of U.S. investment in this field at this time. To better understand interest in natural products research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) an analysis was undertaken to quantify the number of applications submitted to and awards made by NIH over the last five years (2011 – 2015). This analysis revealed over 5,000 natural products focused research applications were submitted in this timeframe, but fewer than 600 were funded. Applications and awards spanned all areas of science from synthesis to biochemistry to clinical studies. Although there are 27 Institutes and Centers at NIH, over 70% of these applications were submitted to four components of NIH specifically; the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This presentation will share further analysis of this data including summaries of the overall size of the NIH investment in natural products research as well as its distribution among the four major investors and comparison of success rate for natural product applications compared to NIH averages overall.

Keywords: National Institutes of Health, NIH, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NCCIH.