NIH Cuts Threaten Future of American Medical Innovation

As a physician and public health expert, I have seen firsthand how transformative US investment in medical research in be. The main engine of that funding has been the National Institutes of Health, which, until recently, had a budget of $40 billion that flows to government, academic, and private industry researchers. It fuels discovery, turns promising ideas into life-saving treatments, and anchors the U.S. as the global leader in biomedical innovation. That’s why I read with particular horror and sadness about how funding changes are already undermining America’s ability to develop the next generation of therapies.

Why Does NIH Funding Matter for Medical Breakthroughs?

This isn’t about politics. It’s about patients and the pipeline that brings lab discoveries to their bedside. NIH dollars don’t just pay for pipettes and petri dishes or for researchers to keep busy publishing scientific papers. They pay humans who become the next generation of innovation in medical research, support start-ups especially those spun off from university research labs, and fund the highest risk research that private investors won’t. When the NIH freezes grants or slashes budgets, everything slows. Not enough staff to do the work. No funding for the supplies, equipment, and costs of expensive (and life-saving) clinical trials. Cures delayed.

What Are the Consequences of the NIH Budget Cuts?

We saw the power of NIH investment with mRNA vaccine development—millions in early support for the types of research that only government will take a risk on. That research eventually saved millions of lives and counting. When studied in clinical trials, it also gave us critical information about to guide our public health policies, such as the attack rate, secondary attack rate, infectious period, and incubation period in people who had immunity and those who did not.

Yet now, that kind of forward-thinking investment is under attack. Start-ups tackling mental health, rare diseases in children, cancer treatment, or new antibiotics are stuck in limbo. Talented young scientists are already leaving research entirely because there’s no money to support their work.

Could the U.S. Lose Its Edge in Biomedical Research?

The U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on good ideas. Countries like China are rapidly scaling up their own biotech industries. If we cede this ground, we don’t just lose prestige. We lose jobs. We lose innovation. We lose having access to life-saving treatments developed in the U.S. We lose the chance to lead. And we eventually lose lives.

What Should Be Done to Protect U.S. Medical Innovation?

The administration’s mantra is to “Make America Healthy Again.” That requires more, not less, investment in science. Undermining NIH doesn’t just shrink budgets—it shrinks our future.

If we care about health, competitiveness, or just plain human decency, we need to treat science as the national asset it is. We should be doubling down on NIH, not tearing it down.