The Patients Are Waiting (2018)

There are more than 9,000 known diseases. But today, we've discovered approved treatments for only 500 of them. And millions of patients are waiting desperately for a lifeline. The problem isn't the science. The National Institutes of Health funds billions in basic research. The problem is taking the thousands of academic studies sitting idle today and translating them into real medical breakthroughs that change real patients' lives. The solution could come in the form of the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA), modeled after DARPA, the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Just as DARPA gave us the technology behind the Internet, GPS and ultrasounds, HARPA could provide the solutions for Alzheimer's, ALS, pancreatic cancer and even the opioid crisis. Only a government model has the power to bring together the private sector, doctors, policymakers and patients for the greater good. Such an effort would fundamentally reshape medical science in this country, changing how research projects behind our greatest medical challenges are funded and executed. But as Dr. Geoffrey Ling, the founder of DARPA's biotech division and a proponent of HARPA, says, "If you want to do something revolutionary, you have to create a revolutionary apparatus for it." Our job was to tell the story of HARPA's unlimited promise. Our goal was to champion the possibility of delivering newfound hope to millions.