This sounds like a lot of FUD. $80 million isn't that much compared to the NIH budget. This is about one third of one percent of all NIH funding we're talking about.

I don't think we should change the funding system from grants to prizes. The existence of my job relies almost entirely on NIH funded grants, and I am not worried about this in the least. When they start talking about replacing the other $23.9+ billion in NIH grants with prizes, then we should worry.