https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/tl/feature/nih

Mary Lasker and the Growth of the National Institutes of Health

Quotes: "Until World War II, medical research in the United States was modest in scale. It was conducted at universities, non-profit institutes, or private companies, with only a few federal grants-in-aid.Scientists opposed federal financing of research as government infringement on the freedom of science and a violation of the principle that not money, but the individual ability of the investigator counted most in achieving scientific progress." (Red Text added)

'Mary Lasker concluded from these wartime experiences that public health had to be improved and that medical research could ensure such improvement, but only after it was reorganized and given a large infusion of federal funds."Without money, nothing gets done," she asserted.' (Red Text added.)

"After first pushing for research institutes independent of the National Institute of Health (then still singular), Lasker and Mahoney shifted their position in 1946 in favor of expanding its research capabilities. With their lobbying support, the NIH budget grew 150-fold, to $460 million, between 1945 and 1961, and reached $1 billion by the late 1960s." (Red text added.)