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WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Vice Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, today joined with U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-NY), to introduce the “National Pediatric Research Consortia Establishment Act of 2008.” This important bipartisan health care legislation will create a network of pediatric centers that will maximize the potential for prevention and intervention by providing enabling infrastructure to support basic and translational research. The bill will create up to 20 “hub-and-spoke” pediatric research consortia, modeled after the National Cancer Institute’s Comprehensive Cancer Centers, in which each lead institution will work with various satellite centers, allowing many more pediatric research institutions and children’s hospitals to benefit from cross-cutting pediatric research and expertise.

“It is astonishing that only five percent of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) budget is directed at pediatric-specific research at children’s hospitals – the best qualified place for such vital research – when children represent roughly one-quarter of the U.S. population,” said DeGette. “That fact, combined with the impact that prevention and quality health care during childhood can have on long-term health outcomes, further underscores the importance of our pediatric research consortia legislation. In order to best support the health of future generations, we need to truly understand disease pathways during childhood – and the National Pediatric Research Consortia Act will enable us to take a step closer to that goal.”

“There is an increasing need for more research on pediatric illnesses as we seek to find ways to improve the lives of our children, both in their early years and through their adulthood,” said King. “This legislation will establish a coordinated federal effort in research so that we may better understand, treat, and prevent childhood disorders. The consortia will be invaluable in the fight to advance children’s health across the country and I am fully supportive of its formation.”

The DeGette-King bipartisan legislation creating pediatric research centers will empower outstanding peer-reviewed researchers and research projects by developing interdisciplinary collaborations and multi-institutional networks with state-of-the-art technologies. This approach will lead to new understanding of the biological and genetic bases of major disorders that afflict children, and translate such understanding into prevention and intervention strategies and improved outcomes that have both immediate and lifelong impact. Its Senate companion bill was introduced in April by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Christopher Bond (R-MS).