S-2745 : Still Just a Bill

Advancing NIH Strategic Planning and Representation in Medical Research Act

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to:

• publish a strategic plan that addresses research, training, the biomedical workforce, and collaboration with other agencies;
• foster collaboration among certain clinical research projects to increase the number and diversity of human subjects;
• encourage improvement in research related to the health of sexual and gender minority populations;
• convene a working group to make recommendations to enhance the rigor and reproducibility of NIH-funded research; and
• develop policies for NIH-funded basic research projects to assess how differences between male and female cells, tissues, or animals may be examined and analyzed.

In assessing research priorities, the NIH must publish data on clinical research study populations.

The strategic plans of the national research institutes must ensure that future activities take into account women and minorities and are focused on reducing health disparities. Advisory council reports must include certain demographic data for clinical research subjects.

The results of clinical trials that include women and minorities must be submitted to the NIH’s clinical trial data bank.

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities may foster partnerships between national research institutes and encourage the funding of collaborative research projects.

The Department of Health and Human Services must establish the Task Force on Research Specific to Pregnant Women and Lactating Women to report on issues including development of safe and effective therapies for such women.