Dear Secretary Kennedy,
Congratulations on your confirmation as United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. On behalf of the type 1 diabetes (T1D) community, I want to extend our sincere offer to work with you and to ask you to join us in the fight to cure T1D.
At Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF), the leading global T1D research and advocacy organization, our core mission is to drive medical innovation to cure, prevent, and better treat T1D and its complications. We do this by investing in the most promising research, advocating for progress by working with the Federal government to address issues that impact the T1D community, and helping educate and empower individuals facing this condition. Breakthrough T1D has committed over $2.5 billion in research grants since our founding in 1970, but we cannot do it alone–the Federal government is key to achieving cures for T1D.
We support having the most effective and efficient Federal government agencies and programs. Taxpayer dollars should be spent thoughtfully and purposefully to advance the best interests of the American people. However, retaining excellence and attracting the best and the brightest scientific minds will serve as the foundation for a healthier America and, as importantly, speed innovation and cures to families living with T1D and the many other conditions for which we do not yet have a cure.
Certain Federal actions related to staffing that threaten medical research and advancements will work against this mission, and we respectfully caution you to approach staffing decisions with a full understanding of the impact on medical research and cures. Our community has partnered with scientists at NIH and the FDA to advance life-changing T1D breakthroughs. We have made exponential progress in recent years. We can tell you with absolute certainty that we need the NIH researchers, NIH grantees, and the committed leaders at the FDA to continue such progress. And we can assure you that they have not been holding us back. On the contrary, progress will likely slow without them.
In fact, there is a potentially curative T1D therapy nearing submission for final approval at the FDA.
Imagine overseeing the breakthrough of the century on your watch as Secretary. That would not just be changing lives. It would mean saving lives. And the positive economic impact would be significant.
But imagine the devastation, the heartbreak, and the continued scourge of T1D if this scientific progress is disrupted, slowed or derailed if research and product reviews are gutted to the point of not functioning.
We simply do not believe that is your intent.
On this, your first full day as Secretary, we want to welcome you and commit to working with you to improve and save lives. Please understand our deep and intimate knowledge of the disease that has taken over people living with T1D and our families, made us worry every minute of every day for our children, and pushed us to have a single-minded purpose to cure T1D. I have lived with T1D since I was 13 and my brother since he was 3. I am a scientist by trade prior to becoming CEO of Breakthrough T1D and we know curing T1D is within reach. Please put your new power and responsibility behind achieving it.
I look forward to working with you to accelerate life-saving research and treatments for the 1.6 million Americans living with T1D and welcome the opportunity to meet with you and your staff to discuss the recent announcements and ways we can move forward to achieve cures.
Very truly yours,
Aaron J. Kowalski, PhD
CEO, Breakthrough T1D
