Biden calls NIH Director Frances Collins ‘one of the most important scientists of our time’

President Biden on Tuesday commended Frances Collins for his service as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a lengthy and personal statement issued by the White House after the top health official announced plans to step down from his post by year’s end.

“After I was elected president, Dr. Collins was one of the first people I asked to stay in his role with the nation facing one of the worst public health crises in our history,” Biden said. “Another critical reason I asked him to stay was to help lay the groundwork for the first-of-its-kind Advanced Research Project Agency for Health, ARPA-H, to harness all of our knowledge and resources to better detect, treat, and cure diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer.”

“I was grateful he answered the call to serve even though it was asking him to stay on the job longer than anyone in NIH history. Today, I understand his decision to step down from his post at the end of this year after an incredible and consequential tenure,” the president continued.

Biden described Collins as “one of the most important scientists of our time” and noted that he and Collins got to know one another when then-President Obama tapped Collins as NIH director after taking office in 2009.

Toward the end of the Obama administration, Biden, then vice president, launched the National Cancer Moonshot with help from Collins following the death of Biden’s son, Beau Biden, from brain cancer.

“Millions of people will never know Dr. Collins saved their lives. Countless researchers will aspire to follow in his footsteps. And I will miss the counsel, expertise, and good humor of a brilliant mind and dear friend,” Biden said Tuesday.

Collins, who has served at the helm of NIH for more than 12 years across three different presidential administrations, announced earlier Tuesday that he intends to leave the agency by the end of the year. He is returning to his research lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute after his departure.

Collins has been a key leader in the U.S. response to COVID-19. Biden in his statement recognized Collins as “central” in the government health agency’s unprecedented effort to develop coronavirus vaccines under former President Trump.