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Debt Deal Could Mean NIH Research In MA Hit Hard

WBUR's Deborah Becker
WBUR's Deborah Becker

Massachusetts receives more federal scientific research money per capita than any other state in the country — most of it from the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. Susan Windham-Bannister, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, says the state will likely be hard hit.

“When we look at dollars for major research programs and these dollars come from NIH, for example, it is likely that Massachusetts will experience a disproportionately negative share, because we have received a disproportionately positive benefit,” Windham-Bannister said.

Last year, the state received $2.4 billion from NIH for research. About half of that went to the teaching hospitals.

The five largest teaching hospital recipients of federal research dollars are in Boston, according to John Erwin, the executive director of the Conference of Boston Teaching hospitals. They include Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s, Children’s Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“That’s something we should be proud of,” Erwin said. “It shows that our researchers are putting forth proposals that, after peer review at NIH, are getting funding and it’s anchoring the entire life sciences industry here in Massachusetts.”

Massachusetts receives more federal scientific research money per capita than any other state in the country.
In fiscal year 2007, Erwin said, NIH-funded research created more than 20,000 new jobs in Massachusetts, with wages totaling more than $1 billion.

See the full report on wbur.org here.

This program aired on August 3, 2011. The audio for this program is not available.

Headshot of Carey Goldberg

Carey Goldberg Editor, CommonHealth
Carey Goldberg is the editor of WBUR's CommonHealth section.

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