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 PRESS RELEASE
| Increased Funding Will Increase Autoimmune Disease Research |
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| DETROIT, July 7, 1999 - First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at the
recent Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International Children Congress,
announced that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will award a $120 million,
multi-year contract to support new clinical trials on immune tolerance. This
will have a significant impact on autoimmune diseases such as type I
diabetes, lupus nephritis, and autoimmune hepatitis. Organ transplant has
been the only life-saving treatment option for a patient whose kidney or
liver has been destroyed by a chronic autoimmune reaction. These conditions
are caused by the immune system attacking and damaging one own organs.
There are over 80 autoimmune diseases which affect 50 million Americans.
These diseases cost over $86 billion annually in health care costs and are
the third leading cause of death and disability, following heart disease and
cancer.
Researchers have been searching for ways to do transplants without the need
for long-term anti-rejection drugs, which have toxic side effects and can
even cause cancer. This research will develop and conduct clinical trials of
new therapies that hold promise of eliminating the lifelong need for
anti-rejection drugs. In addition to preventing rejection, these immune
tolerance therapies could also be affective for autoimmune diseases which do
not attack major organs but cause damage to other tissue, such as in the case
of autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn disease, autoimmune
thyroid diseases, and psoriasis.
The NIAID Network for Clinical Research on Immune Tolerance will bring
cutting-edge immunology research and promising therapies to people with type
I diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.,
Director of NIAID at the NIH. This initiative is an example of the
continuing NIH commitment to partnerships that maximize the impact of our
research dollars with private foundations such as the Juvenile Diabetes
Foundation as well as with colleagues in academia and industry.
The announcement of this initiative is another indication that the NIH is
increasing its interest in autoimmune research which has been underfunded for
many years. The announcement follows closely the recent NIH increase of $30
million for autoimmune research which has funded ten new initiatives this
year. We are very excited about this program as it will be of tremendous
importance to persons suffering with autoimmune diseases whose therapy
options have not changed significantly over the past twenty years, said
Virginia Ladd, president of the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA). It will give
hope to the millions who suffer from these devastating illnesses. AARDA
feels very good about the NIH increasing interest in autoimmunity and the
role it plays in so many chronic diseases.
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