US chief medical advisor urges more support for Filipino scientists, institutions

MANILA, Philippines — America's top infectious disease expert on Tuesday hailed Filipino scientists for their contribution to global research, and said support for them is crucial in averting future health crises such as the coronavirus pandemic. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci gave the keynote address at the 43rd annual scientific meeting of the National Academy of Science and Technology Tuesday morning. 

Among the lessons from the pandemic, he said, was how sustained biomedical research is "essential to global wellbeing" as showed in the development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.

"I want to emphasize the importance of sustained local support for scientists and scientific institutions in the Philippines and elsewhere," Fauci said. "This support is the necessary foundation to attract funding from outside the country."

US President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor added: "It is also an essential for economic vitality and growth."

The Department of Science and Technology this 2021 has a funding of P24.91 billion ($498.6 million) out of the government's P4.5 trillion spending plan. 

In last year's budget deliberations, Science Secretary Fortunato dela Pena lamented that the agency's budget for research was cut by P76 million. It was not immediately clear if this was restored in the final version of the outlay.

Fauci, who heads the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hopes research collaboration between Washington and Manila would continue, as it has been in the last three decades.

He commended Filipinos' efforts, too, in research on other diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS, for which he was known leading the research in the United States.

"Participation of the Philippines in these multi-country networks has helped ensure that your scientists are among the core of key contributors," Fauci said, "advancing biomedical discoveries that have made aids a preventable chronic disease rather than an acute one with a high degree of mortality."

Fauci added it is also Filipino scientists continuing to lead research on dengue and other diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis. 

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, for one, had received funding from the US NIAID as a center of excellence, the infectious disease expert said.

"Hopefully, this institution and others will continue to receive Philippine government support, so they remain competitive for both funding and talent," Fauci continued.

He said he is looking forward to the Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Pacific Rim conference in 2022, which the DOST offered to co-host with NIAID and Japan.

Fauci thanked the Philippines for its longstanding scientific partnership with the US, where the two countries "have learned from each other and shared a tradition of excellence in science and technology."

"I am confident that our future collaboration will continue to contribute to scientific discovery through basic and clinical research," he said, "and the training of talented new scientists."