NIH funding cuts have affected over 74,000 people enrolled in
experiments, a new report says
[November 18, 2025]
By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN
NEW YORK (AP) — Over 74,000 people enrolled in experiments have been
affected by the National Institutes of Health's funding cuts, according
to a new report.
Between the end of February and mid-August, funding ceased for 383
studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer,
heart disease and brain disease. The cuts disproportionately impacted
efforts to tackle infectious diseases like the flu, pneumonia and
COVID-19, researchers found.
The funding cuts likely disrupted patients' lives in different ways.
Some may have signed up for trials that never began or got delayed as
institutions scrambled for alternate funding. Others could have lost
access to medication or been left with an unmonitored device implant.
More still could have participated in trials only for the results to
never get published.
“The disruption to the research enterprise was profound and
substantial,” said Heather Pierce, who has followed NIH grant cuts for
the Association of American Medical Colleges.
More broadly, the lost research harms patients who could have benefited
from a possible new treatment, researchers said in the report published
Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
“The whole purpose of these clinical trials is to generate evidence on
what works and doesn’t work in medicine," said study co-author Anupam B.
Jena with Harvard Medical School.
Researchers counted 11,008 NIH-funded studies during the study period.
Of those, 1 in 30 lost funding.
Those clinical trial cuts may also erode trust between people and the
medical institutions that support them, said Jeremy Berg, a former
director of an NIH institute. Patients could think twice before
participating in future research projects, worried that the funding
could get pulled abruptly.
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National Institute of Health researchers test patient samples in
Bethesda, Md., on Nov. 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Federica Narancio, File)
 “Anybody else who’s ever approached
about a clinical trial could easily feel, ‘Why should I be involved
in this?’” said Berg.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, said in an email that the NIH is realigning its
priorities, and funding was likely cut for the clinical trials
because they “prioritized ideological agendas over scientific rigor
and meaningful outcomes for the American people."
“We strongly reject the intentionally misleading portrayal of our
grant management process,” said Nixon.
The NIH has cut billions of dollars in research projects under the
Trump administration.
A Supreme Court decision in August paved the way for the NIH to axe
hundreds of millions in a push to cut diversity, equity and
inclusion efforts. Challenges to NIH's attempted cuts to the
so-called indirect costs of medical research are also making their
way through the courts.
Hundreds of NIH scientists signed a letter in June decrying new
policies and the grant terminations, saying that they “undermine the
NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of
Americans and people across the globe.”
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