The damage done | Nature Medicine
peter.suber's bookmarks 2025-10-03
Summary:
"Since January, US President Donald Trump and his administration have shaken clinical research in the USA and abroad. Grant Witness, a volunteer-run project that has been tracking NIH terminations and reinstatements, has recorded over 5,100 NIH grants that have been terminated or frozen, which has led to a loss of about $4.5 billion in estimated remaining grant funds (Fig. 1). Of those grants impacted, only 1,295 had been reinstated as of 1 September, Grant Witness reports.
Among these cancellations, at least 148 clinical trials have been impacted, with over 138,000 patients due to be enrolled or already enrolled — figures that are probably an underestimate — according to TrialsTracker, a partnership website that integrates data from Grant Witness and studies registered with ClinicalTrials.gov.
Nature Medicine spoke with six scientists to understand how this disruption has affected their clinical work (Fig. 2). Investigators describe how the wave of uncertainty alone has slowed clinical research, often to a near halt. Others report working on a voluntary basis to keep their research afloat. The NIH press office declined to comment on the concerns raised by these investigators...."