Health Cuts Would Result in Fewer Drugs for Americans, Budget Office Reports

New York Times

5 days ago

Funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could sharply reduce the number of new drugs available to Americans in the coming decades, according to an analysis released on Friday by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Trump administration has proposed shrinking the budget of the N.I.H., the world's premier funder of medical research, by $18 billion, or nearly 40 percent. But even a 10 percent reduction would prevent roughly 30 additional drugs from coming to market in the next three decades, the budget office said.
The budget office also assessed a hypothetical scenario in which staffing reductions at the F.D.A. would delay the review of new drugs by nine months. Such delays would prevent 23 additional drugs from becoming available in that time period, according to the analysis.
About 3,500 F.D.A. workers, roughly 15 percent of the work force, have been laid off by the Trump administration or have left voluntarily in recent months.
The cuts come at a time of rapid innovation in gene therapies and in targeting rare diseases, cancers and mental health disorders, said Rena Conti, who directs the Technology Policy and Research Institute at Boston University. 'Having these type of cuts will fundamentally set back progress in meeting the demand for these type of therapies,' she said. 'And that leaves patients without hope.'
The budget office issued its assessment in response to a request from several members of Congress opposed to the cuts, including Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon. This group provided the office with the scenarios it ended up assessing, including the hypothetical nine-month delay to drug reviews.
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