This post was written by Paul Sheives.

FDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have announced a new initiative aimed at improving efficiencies in translational science and regulatory science to close the gap in time between discovery of new technology and availability of therapies to patients. A new entity established under the initiative, the Joint Leadership Council, will seek to increase the consideration of regulatory issues early in the development of new technologies and therapies. In addition, the agencies jointly will issue grants totaling almost $7 million to develop better approaches to evaluating safety and efficacy for the development of new technologies and therapies.