The Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health awarded major grants to nearly 3,000 biotech firms across 47 states and the District of Columbia.
The grants to be used for inventive solutions or therapeutic treatment were announced during a teleconference Nov. 3. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, NIH Director Francis Collins, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner handed out the awards for everything from an innovative flu vaccine to an autism vaccine, currently in Phase 3 trials, Nextgov reports.
“These grants made possible by the Affordable Care Act will not only help to create jobs and bolster the economy but also bring us closer to the next generation of life-saving cures,” Collins said. “The projects funded show significant potential to create new therapies that will address unmet medical needs and bolster the medical countermeasure supply we use to respond to health emergencies.”
Geithner said the grants would “help make sure our companies, entrepreneurs, and workers can continue to invest and innovate, which will strengthen our economy now and far into the future.”
Nextgov reports more than 4,500 applications were submitted to be considered for the grants.
