Parkinson Pipeline Project-treatment development database, research, FDA drug approval, PD clinical trials and sponsors, patient involvement

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In fact, probably the best way to look at productive innovation is as a two-phase process -- an exploratory phase and a deployment phase. The exploratory phase is bottoms-up, a little chaotic, autonomous in that it’s spontaneous. The deployment phase is goal-oriented, mission-oriented, and it has to be directed from the top down, and it is expensive. That's where the billion dollars come. The current grant mechanism almost completely serves the autonomous process. You put all things together, 80 percent of the NIH budget goes toward that and much of the 20 percent goes to related infrastructure.

We need to rebalance the system so that the equivalent of manufacturing in our business, the deployment, is as well-funded and as well-celebrated, as well-organized as the autonomous process.

To rebalance this, you need a new grant mechanism. I propose a new grant mechanism that I’ll call, in the absence of anything better, the X01 grant.

The X01 Grant is mission-oriented -- the mission should be set top down. The dollar amount should be high, in the billion-dollar range. And it should be monitored by a rolling two-year forecast every six months, for the following two years. And if the goals are not met, the grant should be terminated -- with regrets.

Very importantly, in choosing a principal investigator, special attention should be toward program management skills. Program management skills will make or break these things. And the science should not be the best science. It should be science that is good enough for the mission. The best science is for another train, another day.

Our country has been able to marshal resources to do this in war time, but not when driven by economic imperatives, like an Alzheimer's disease meteor coming our way. My question is, is the science establishment -- are you and your seniors ready to lead? And I think you should consider that the day may come when Congress will have no choice but to look at the performance of the billions of dollars that has been spent on science and ask, "Has it been worth it? Is the world ready to use that money that we give out in trust for the public? And if not, why give it to them any more?”

I apologize for being over time and it's your turn now.

[Applause]

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