Overview
- Researchers report that between Feb. 28 and Aug. 15, NIH terminated grants for 383 of 11,008 funded clinical trials, interrupting studies with more than 74,000 enrolled participants.
- Infectious-disease trials were hit hardest with funding pulled from more than 14% of such studies, with additional impacts on prevention, respiratory, cardiovascular, and internationally run trials, and a concentration of cancellations in the US Northeast.
- The study and a companion editorial warn of ethical breaches and wasted public investment, describing patient harms such as delayed starts, lost access to medications, unmonitored device implants, and results that may never be published.
- HHS says the analysis misrepresents grant management and argues the portfolio is being refocused on high-impact science, while separate reporting notes NIH cut about $3.8 billion earlier this year and independent trackers log 5,464 impacted projects with an estimated $2.3 billion in ongoing losses plus $703 million in NSF awards on hold.
- Researchers highlight contradictory public records and payment cutoffs that leave some awards labeled active, universities have scrambled for bridge funding with Harvard setting aside about $250 million and winning a court ruling restoring some grants, and trackers report no new terminations since the Oct. 1 shutdown.