On February 8, 2022, at 1030 ET, the House Energy & Commerce committee will hold a hearing on "ARPA-H, Next Frontier of Biomedical Research."
- The meeting may include discussion of new news stories about harassment and employee abuse by lead speaker Eric Lander (Endpoints here, Politico here). New York Post provides a press conference video clip here.
- UPDATE MONDAY NIGHT FEBRUARY 7/8: ERIC LANDER RESIGNS.
ARPA-H is a plan for a multi-billion dollar translational research agency modeled on DARPA (defense research agency) and building on successes such as Operation Warp Speed and BARDA's funding successes both before COVID and in the COVID epidemic. ARPA H has a placeholder webpage at NIH here. Although it's only a proposed agency, it already has a year's worth of press releases and news events to peruse. See proposed legislation from Repr. Anna Eshoo in September 2021 - Bill HR 5585 here, and press release here. See an interview with Eshoo - Feb 3 at STAT - noting that "ARPA H won't be part of NIH." Here.
Find the live stream here:
See a six page memo from Chairman Pallone to the committee here:
Speakers to include Eric Lander (WH Office of Science & Technology Policy), plus Keith Yamamoto PhD, UCSF; Ester Krofah, Faster Cures; Geoffrey Shiu Fei Ling, Hopkins Neurology, Adm. Brett Giroir, former Asst Secr. of Health; and Brian James Miller, Hopkins Medicine. As of February 6, it looks like testimony for each is already on line.
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NATURE had a summer 2021 on "the rise of ARPA-Everything" here. D-ARPA is the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, apparently the abbreviation H-ARPA (HARPA) (sic) was nixed at some point in favor of ARPA-H.
