Francis Collins: Concern about independence of new moonshot science agency ARPA-H are ‘overblown’

WASHINGTON — Francis Collins thinks the debate surrounding the Biden administration’s new high-stakes research agency is much ado about nothing.

The new research office, known as ARPA-H, has been the subject of multiple lobbying campaigns lately, chief among them a battle over whether it should be housed within the National Institutes of Health.

But Collins, who led the NIH for 12 years and recently assumed the role of interim White House science adviser, told STAT this week that he views the debates as an unnecessary distraction.

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