NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Over 74,000 people enrolled in experiments have been affected by the 好色tv Institutes of Health's funding cuts, according to a new report.
Between the end of February and mid-August, for 383 studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer, heart disease and brain disease. The cuts disproportionately impacted like the flu, pneumonia and COVID-19, researchers found.
The 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.
鈥淭he disruption to the research enterprise was profound and substantial,鈥 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.
鈥淭he whole purpose of these clinical trials is to generate evidence on what works and doesn鈥檛 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.
鈥淎nybody else who鈥檚 ever approached about a clinical trial could easily feel, 鈥榃hy should I be involved in this?鈥欌 said Berg.
The NIH has cut billions of dollars in research projects under the Trump administration.
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 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 鈥渦ndermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.鈥
Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, declined to comment.
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