At Hearing, Experts Confirm Costly Toll of Trump Cuts at NIH and FDA, Senator Murray Blasts Trump for Upending Biomedical Research Grants & Canceling Clinical Trials

Senator Murray: “Since President Trump took office and Secretary Kennedy was confirmed, the Trump administration has terminated $2.3 billion in life-saving research that was funded by the NIH. They tried to cut billions more from our medical research labs in every state.”

***WATCH: Senator Murray on how Trump has jeopardized treatments and cures for rare diseases***

Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing titled “The Future of Biotech: Maintaining U.S. Competitiveness and Delivering Lifesaving Cures to Patients,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)—a former chair and senior member of the HELP Committee—spoke forcefully on how Trump’s cuts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have cost countless families their hope for treatments and cures for rare diseases, and severely set back American competitiveness in biomedical research and development.  

Witnesses at the hearing included: Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, a physician and health policy researcher at Harvard University; Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a physician and professor of medicine at Yale University; John Crowley, President and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization; Lowell Schiller, Nonresident Senior Scholar at the USC Schaeffer Institute; and Dr. Josh Makower, Yock Family Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering, Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering.

[BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH COMPETITIVENESS]

Senator Murray began by asking Drs. Aaron Kesselheim and Reshma Ramachandran about how the Trump administration’s cancellations of NIH grants and staffing cuts at the NIH and FDA have taken a severe toll on American biomedical research and competitiveness. “Since President Trump took office and Secretary Kennedy was confirmed, the Trump administration has terminated $2.3 billion in life-saving research that was funded by the NIH. They tried to cut billions more from our medical research labs in every state by illegally implementing a new indirect cost policy. They proposed gutting the NIH budget by 43 percent—that’s about $20 billion dollars. They laid off thousands of scientists and grant administrators at NIH and across HHS,” Senator Murray said. “They have slowed the FDA’s review of drugs and medical products by firing thousands of staff at the agency, and they have halted more than 100 clinical trials that were working discover promising new treatments and cures. So, it seems to me that this administration has declared war on public health—and those examples are just a few of many.”

“So, Dr. Kesselheim, I wanted to ask you, does canceling more than five thousand NIH grants—on everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease—increase or decrease American competitiveness in biomedical research and innovation?” asked Senator Murray.

“It substantially decreases it, because we will lose the competitive battle that we have with academic institutions and research institutions in other countries if we don’t continue to have that level of support, and more, that we need in this country,” Dr. Kesselheim replied. “The support for research at those centers that ultimately then lead to spin-off companies or other development, that’s where we get our cures from, and we really need that in order to stay competitive with science that’s going on around the world.”

Senator Murray continued, “Yes, and I think we should note that more than 99 percent of all new drugs approved by the FDA from 2010 through 2019 were actually built on a foundation of NIH-funded research. So, it’s pretty clear our country’s historical success that you’ve all talked about relied on a strong pipeline from basic research through pharmaceutical development, and our investments that we make here.”

“Dr. Ramachandran, what do the Trump administration’s cuts at NIH and the FDA mean for pharmaceutical companies’ ability to bring new treatments and medicines to patients?” asked Senator Murray.

Dr. Ramachandran responded: “There’s both a long-term and short-term problem. Obviously, in the short term, you mentioned clinical trials being canceled. These are oftentimes kind of the late-stage development steps for us to be able to see, is a therapy potentially safe and effective for patients. And that is not happening as often, and there’s been delays in terms of awarding also grants as well.

“And then the cuts you mentioned to FDA is causing real time effects in terms of getting new therapies reviewed in a timely manner, much less approved. So that means treatments potentially that are safe and effective, that are not reaching patients.

“On a long-term perspective, NIH is the agency responsible for the foundational research that leads to the startup companies that Mr. Crowley was talking about, that other senators have also mentioned before, that have come across various states as well, and that is really kind of the catalyst for innovation in the first place. If we don’t have that sort of investment in NIH, in five, ten years down the line, we’re not going to be seeing new treatments that would be transformative for our patients. And we’ve heard from the biotech industry, they do not have the resources to make up for any sort of shortfalls from the NIH, nor do they have the compulsion to do so, because they have shareholders who want to see short term returns… On top of that, our trainees that we’re seeing in our academic institutions, in particular, are leaving the United States to go to other countries because they are not seeing opportunities—both in the public sector and academic institutions—to continue this research, much less in also the private sector. There have been huge job cuts also there as well.”

[RARE DISEASE CLINICAL TRIALS]

Senator Murray continued her questioning by asking Mr. John Crowley, who shared his family’s personal experience fighting a rare disease, about the consequences of canceling rare disease clinical trials and suspending future funding for NIH’s Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, “Mr. Crowley, first of all, thank you for sharing your family’s personal experience. That was, I think, a story many of us need to remember, that these investments that we make pay off for individuals, and we cannot ignore that. I hope everybody recognizes that. I wanted to ask you specifically because NIH operates the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, and their chaotic policy changes and firing of more than 1,600 scientists and grant administrators at NIH has upended many of the Network’s clinical trials, researchers are hearing they might not be able to reapply for some of this funding for more than five years from now.”

“So, talk to me about how canceling rare disease clinical trials and suspending future funding impacts rare disease patients and their families?”

Mr. Crowley answered, “I think it has a direct impact, Senator. Again, in that virtuous circle of innovation, the NIH plays a very, very important role in foundational research and facilitating translational research as well. So, for us, for the entire industry and biotechnology, it remains incredibly important as well, and we’d support continued funding of the NIH well.”

“I think we all need to, as Members of Congress, recognize we have a responsibility here to fund those critical agencies and not decimate the future with these layoffs and mass firings and losing the funding,” Senator Murray concluded.

Senator Murray, a longtime congressional leader on health care, has been fighting back tirelessly against the Trump administration’s efforts to gut lifesaving research at NIH and push out nearly 4,000 skilled scientists, grants administrators, and other employees at the agency. She led the entire Democratic caucus in a letter in February raising the alarm over the Trump administration’s actions to threaten American biomedical research infrastructure and set us back generations. Senator Murray released a statement decrying the Trump administration’s all-out assault on the NIH upon meeting with Bhattacharya in February, and at his nomination hearing in March, she pressed Dr. Bhattacharya on the Trump administration’s efforts to cut billions from biomedical research through an illegal cap on indirect costs, and their unprecedented halt on NIH Advisory Council Meetings, among other issues. She has sent numerous oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans health and safety and will set our country back decades, and lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own. Last month, Senator Murray took to the Senate floor to slam the Trump administration for abandoning the fight to end cancer by cutting vital NIH grants for cancer research and clinical trials.

Throughout her career, Senator Murray has led Congressional efforts to boost biomedical research. Over her years as Chair of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, she secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at NIH, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments. 

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