Overview                                      
                                                          
May 2005

Dear Friends:

Last year we told you the Foundation for NIH was in the midst of an extraordinary evolution, one that was transformational. This year our message is unchanged, but more emphatic.

We are now involved in nearly 50 public private partnerships of increasing depth and breadth and with an aggregate portfolio value of approximately $280 million. This once obscure Foundation has truly come into its own. The transformation has brought us distinctive recognition as a national organization. Across the country, when public-private partnerships in biomedical research are the subject of conversation, it is likely the Foundation for NIH is cited as an example for successful, high-impact collaborations.

To have this success has required the support and cooperation of some quite extraordinary donors and partners. It has also required a dedicated board of directors and staff—dedicated, but smart, energetic, and creative. The Foundation has been particularly blessed in the caliber of its people. They are experienced in foundation “know-how,” scientific expertise, and program management.

This growing capacity tracks well with growing needs of the NIH. NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D. wrote last September, “As the 21st century begins to unfold and the genomic era becomes a reality, I am convinced that we can make quantum leaps in our knowledge about how to improve people’s health. Powerful unifying concepts of biology are emerging that hold the potential to lead to rapid progress.” To expedite such progress, the NIH developed the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research—a short list of the most compelling initiatives that NIH should pursue to make the biggest difference in medical research and health. The initiatives cut across NIH institutes and centers and bring together multiple disciplines. This presents nothing less than a re-engineering of the biomedical research enterprise.

Public-private partnerships will be integral to many of the Roadmap initiatives. The Foundation for NIH must continue to leverage its unique breadth of partners and donors, of people and skills, of singular authority provided by the United States Congress, and do so with agility and innovation in tune with the vision and needs of the Roadmap and other initiatives.

During 2004, the Foundation facilitated partnerships of all sizes and configurations. They range from very large scale programs, such as the unprecedented Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, launched last fall with the National Institute on Aging and supported by leading industry and nonprofit advocacy organizations, to smaller ones, such as the Imaging Database Resources Initiative (IDRI). IDRI is a demonstration project of the National Cancer Institute to encourage development of advanced imaging technologies.

The Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge, a remarkable project in its own right, was completed on the NIH campus this past February and will open to guests this month.

On other fronts, the public-private partnerships we have helped create are working to increase the participation of older as well as minority patients in early stage clinical trials; studying the progress of osteoarthritis to identify and compare the effectiveness of new treatments; and, testing drugs already approved for adult use to determine safety, efficacy, and proper dose levels for children. You can read more about these and other partnerships in the Year in Review which follows or at the Foundation’s Web site.

During 2004, the Foundation received $12.5 million in private-sector contributions, grants and interest. The United States Congress appropriated $497,000, and NIH provided $468,000 of in-kind and donated services, to help fund Foundation operations in 2004.  Revenue for the 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2004 totaled $13.5 million, and net assets increased by 37 percent to a total of $19.7 million at year-end. The Foundation expended $6.6 million for program services and $1.6 million for supporting services

(management, general administration, and fundraising) during 2004. For every dollar spent, 81 cents supported programs and 19 cents funded administration and fundraising activities--testimony that efficiency has been maintained even as our personnel level, employees and staff contractors, grew a phenomenal 35 percent.

Last year, the Foundation’s board was enhanced by the election of Mrs. William N. Cafritz and Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S., as directors.  Mrs. Cafritz is a noted philanthropist and civic leader in Washington, D.C. area. Dr. Sommer is dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University.

We would like to thank especially someone who so ably served the Foundation over the years, someone who was there from its earliest formation as a member of the board and a wise counselor and champion of the foundation:  Paul Berg, Ph.D., Cahill Professor in Biochemistry (Emeritus), Stanford University School of Medicine. Paul has resigned from the board after 12 years of service. We want to thank him personally and on behalf of the Foundation for the very important role he has played.

We also want to extend our appreciation to our benefactors and partners and to reiterate our certainty that their generosity and work infuse the promise of health science research with the means for its realization—at a time when that promise has never been greater.  Seeds of research progress planted now will blossom in the lifetimes of most readers of this letter. This is more than a hope. It is our

deep conviction.

Thanks for your continuing support.