Grants for 383 clinical trials were terminated and the funding disruptions affected more than 74,000 trial participants, according to new research.
Amy Nunn and Philip Chan had just started to enroll participants in a federally funded clinical trial for HIV prevention when their work came to an abrupt halt in early March.
“I panicked,” said Nunn, CEO of the nonprofit Rhode Island Public Health Institute, whose research was focused on Black and Hispanic men and their use of the preventive medication for HIV known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. “I was worried we might lose everything.”
Their study was one of many clinical trials that lost funding earlier this year after the Trump administration slashed millions in National Institutes of Health grants. From the end of February to August, grants for 383 clinical trials were terminated and the funding disruptions affected more than 74,000 trial participants, according to new research published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The analysis marks the latest effort to quantify the impact of the large-scale research funding cuts that were initiated soon after Donald Trump took office. The administration has told scientists that it is ending certain work considered discriminatory against people based on race, sex, religion or other attributes, and stopping funding to prevent wasteful spending.
Read the full story: Trump slashed spending on clinical trials. The toll is starting to become clear. (WaPo)