Placing Big Bets to Facilitate Major Health Breakthroughs
Megan Frisk, PhD, director for International Affairs at Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), recently joined us for an alliance discussion on the newly established agency and its unique structure. Inspired by the structure of the Defense Advancement Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has played an instrumental role in breakthrough technologies like the Internet, ARPA-H shares a similar goal of facilitating major health research breakthroughs. This goal is achieved through a “big bets” model where high-impact research projects are selected and funded for time-limited sprints. Here is a short Q&A based off of Dr. Frisk’s presentation:
Q: What is the ARPA-H model?
A: What does ARPA-H do differently? What is our unique fit here within that research enterprise? I guess I like to say we take on those really challenging health problems in pursuit of those high-impact solutions. We’re modeled off of the business model pioneered by DARPA. If you think of [a] valley here in between NIH, which is investing heavily in the basic biomedical research […], and on other ends of this valley being industry, where you have commercial products and services that have a viable pathway to market, we really sit in that middle space that I like to call the ‘Valley of Opportunity.’ So we’re bridging basic biomedical research and industry development.”
Q: Is all the collaboration just in the U.S.?
A: “Another maybe emerging superpower of the agency is our ability to fund Internationally and to really have quite a bit of flexibility in how we connect with the research community globally – patients, researchers, internal organizations, other funders, technologists, entrepreneurs – how are we going to engage that community really thoughtfully and intensively? We work on very short timelines so how are we going to pull together this committee to solve some of these challenges? […] Here we have the opportunity to work hand in hand with these program managers and these mission officers who are just brilliant individuals from all different walks of life.”
Q: What are the mission areas of the agency:
A: “We are disease agnostic. We don’t have a dedicated line in cancer, or immunology, or allergy, or something like that. We are the answer to that. Instead, we focus on mission areas. So we have four mission areas. One is on the future of health science. So that is the really cool novel technology and technology platforms. […] [The next area is] resilient systems, so thinking of what’s not working in our system. This could be data sharing, this could be cybersecurity, this could be issues with reimbursement or care models […] But I also like to think about how are those cool new technologies being integrated into our system? […] The third area is scalable solutions. So how are we going to scale these new platforms, approaches, [and] technologies up and out? This is where you are going to start thinking about things like biomanufacturing, things like supply chain. […] And then the last is on proactive health – our preventative medicine office. This is keeping people from becoming patients.”