AAAAI Warns of Harms from NIH Withdrawal of Renewal Grant Applications

Rare Daily Staff

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, a membership organization of more than 7,100 allergists, asthma specialists, and clinical immunologists, said the National Institutes of Health’s a sudden grant application dismissal will halt critical research and harm patients supported by the Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease Researchers and other rare disease research consortia.

The group said it is calling on Congress and the Rare Disease Congressional Caucus to demand the immediate reinstatement of research funding and renewal application for critically important and federally recognized consortia associated with the Rare Disease Clinical Research Network including the Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease Researchers (CEGIR).

The AAAAI said the sudden policy change, and subsequent dismissal of grant funding, will have devastating effects on the allergy and immunology field, destroying vital research related to patient care and treatment of allergic and immunologic diseases. The organizations urged physicians, researchers, and those affected by these grant withdrawals to contact members of Congress and oppose this harmful erasure of medical research funding.

The group said the National Institutes of Health abruptly withdrew the research funding and renewal application earlier this month. The NIH cited a new policy change and a minor technicality in one paragraph regarding foreign components for dismissing CEGIR’s Cooperative Agreement Grant application.

CEGIR is a leader in the research and treatment of eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases, chronic inflammatory disorders often triggered by food allergies. The AAAAI said the grant dismissal will affect millions of Americans involved in clinical trials and immediately halt life-saving research that supports patients with these diseases.

“The withdrawal of the five-year renewal application for the Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease Researchers jeopardizes critical funding for the only clinical care network for eosinophilic gastroenteritis patients in the United States,” said Carla Davis, president-elect and chair of the AAAAI Scientific Community Task Force for Allergy/Immunology Research. “The fact that this withdrawal was not due to scientific merit makes it even more egregious. Diagnostic and therapeutic research efforts will be halted, and the collapse of this infrastructure will be devastating to our patients. This is a dangerous national precedent.”

Photo: Carla Davis, president-elect and chair of the AAAAI Scientific Community Task Force for Allergy/Immunology Research