More than 74,000 people enrolled in clinical research have been affected by sweeping National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding cuts, according to a new analysis that warns the disruptions could have long-term consequences for medical science and patient care.
Researchers found that between late February and mid-August, funding was halted for 383 NIH-supported clinical trials, including studies targeting cancer, heart disease and neurological conditions. The losses also hit infectious-disease research especially hard, including work on influenza, pneumonia and COVID-19.
“The disruption to the research enterprise was profound and substantial,” said Heather Pierce, who tracks NIH grant policy for the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The findings were published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Trials Halted Mid-stream, Delayed or Abandoned
Researchers noted that the funding cuts likely affected participants in different ways. Some never began trials they had enrolled in because institutions scrambled to secure backup funding. Others may have lost access to study medications or ended up with implanted devices that were no longer monitored.
In some cases, participants completed trials whose findings may never be published because the projects were abandoned.
“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 of Harvard Medical School.
The report reviewed 11,008 NIH-funded clinical trials during the study period and found that roughly 1 in 30 lost funding.
Erosion of Trust
The cuts threaten not only scientific progress but also public trust in medical research, said Jeremy Berg, a former director of an NIH institute. He warned that patients may hesitate to participate in future studies over fears that support could evaporate without warning.
“Anybody else who’s ever approached about a clinical trial could easily feel, ‘Why should I be involved in this?’” Berg said.
HHS Defends Cuts as Policy Realignment
In a statement, Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the NIH is shifting its priorities and suggested that the terminated trials “prioritized ideological agendas over scientific rigor and meaningful outcomes.”
“We strongly reject the intentionally misleading portrayal of our grant management process,” Nixon said.
The Trump administration has overseen billions of dollars in NIH research reductions. The Supreme Court cleared the way in August for the agency to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Separately, legal challenges continue over NIH efforts to cut so-called indirect costs of medical research.
Hundreds of NIH scientists signed a letter in June condemning the new policies and grant cancellations, saying they “undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.”
