Latest news with #budgetCuts
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
InnovationRx: Trump's Proposed Budget Slashes Biomedical Research
In this week's edition of InnovationRx, we look at the impact of Trump's proposed budget cuts on biomedical research and global health, news from the ASCO cancer meeting, Summit Therapeutics' Maky Zanganeh and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. Getty Images The Trump Administration's detailed budget proposal, released on Friday, slashes spending for research on diseases and global health. If enacted, it would set back the effort to find cures for cancer, Alzheimer's and other diseases and lead to increased deaths and disability worldwide. It would cut the Department of Health and Human Services by about 25%. Within the HHS, the National Institutes of Health faces an even harder hit with a proposed 40% budget cut threatening research on cancer and other diseases. Under the proposed budget, the agency would also consolidate its institutes from 27 to just eight, mostly by combining several institutes and centers into larger departments. An opinion in JAMA called cuts to the NIH 'an $8 trillion health care catastrophe' due to its impact on life expectancy and lost health. Public health is also on the chopping block. The CDC faces a 54% budget cut. Part of those cuts reflect a plan to move some of its work on chronic diseases to a newly formed HHS agency called 'Administration for a Healthy America.' The Trump budget proposal also calls for slashing support for global public health initiatives, such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a longstanding effort to combat AIDS and HIV, by more than 60%. These proposed cuts would be piled on top of several other major changes that HHS has made to curtail ongoing research. Last week, for example, the Administration terminated a $258 million program aimed at developing a vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Research in this program has also been useful in developing treatments for other conditions, such as snakebites and COVID-19. Last month, the NIH also adopted a new policy banning 'foreign subawards' – meaning that money from NIH grants can't be used to support international scientists who are collaborating with the grant recipient. As a consequence, Nature reported, 'funding will abruptly cease for dozens, if not hundreds, of ongoing trials of experimental drugs and treatments.' Trump's proposed budget is not law, but rather a detailed wish list of the White House's policies. It is up to Congress to determine the federal budget, and lawmakers are only now beginning the annual process to do so. getty Biotech and pharmaceutical companies presented the latest clinical trial data for drugs aimed at combatting the toughest cancers at the American Society for Clinical Oncology annual conference in Chicago. Here are some of the highlights. AstraZeneca reported that its drug Enhertu reduced disease progression or death by 44% when used in combination with the monoclonal antibody pertuzumab for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Patients in the trial survived a median of three years with progression-free disease, the first improvement on a first-line therapy for breast cancer in more than a decade. The company also said that its drug camizestrant, in combination with another family of cancer drugs, reduced the risk of death or disease progression by 56% compared to the current standard of care. This trial was the first to monitor DNA from the tumors with a blood test, rather than with images, to determine whether to change treatment. The ability to do this is 'redefining how breast cancer is treated and followed up,' AstraZeneca oncology head Susan Galbraith told Forbes. Johnson and Johnson reported that 33% of blood cancer patients who received its CAR-T therapy, Carvykti, showed no progression in their cancer over five years after a single infusion of the treatment. The patients in the study had already received other forms of cancer treatment before getting Carvykti. BioNTech said that a high number of mesothelioma patients (a rare and aggressive form of cancer) receiving its drug BNT-327 in a clinical trial responded to the medication, with more than half of the 31 patients seeing their tumors shrink by more than 30%. The Germany-based biotech is exploring use of the drug in a number of tough cancers. It announced on Monday that it agreed to jointly develop and commercialize BNT327 with Bristol Myers Squibb in a deal that could be worth more than $11 billion. Bayer presented new analysis from clinical trials of its prostate cancer drug Nubeqa, finding that the drug improved patient quality of life compared to a placebo. That result followed previous data showing that it reduced risk of disease progression or death by 46% in combination with the current standard of care. On Tuesday, the FDA approved Nubeqa for certain prostate cancer patients. Massachusetts-based biotech Cullinan Therapeutics reported that its small molecule drug candidate, zipalertinib, which targets lung cancer patients with a genetic mutation that prevents common therapies from working, had a 35% response rate. The patients' cancers had already metastasized, but the median progression-free survival rate was more than nine months. About 10% of patients have these mutations, chief medical officer Jeff Jones told Forbes, who said Cullinan is looking to test the drug in broader patient populations as well. The drug, taken as a pill, also had fewer side effects than comparable cancer treatments, he said, making a course of treatment less likely to be discontinued. Pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer Antheia raised $56 million led by Global Health Investment Corp. at an undisclosed valuation. Cofounder and CEO Christina Smolke told Forbes she hopes to use the funds to expand the company's production of thebaine, a key component of common pain medications. Antheia makes the ingredient using fermentation–similar to the way beer is produced–as opposed to conventional methods, where thebaine is extracted from crops. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company plans to produce other new products, including oripavine, also used in pain medications, and scopolamine, an ingredient in medications for nausea, vomiting and motion sickness. The fermentation technology allows facilities to be built where they're needed, Smolke said. 'That is going to allow us to rebuild our supply chain and solve issues of resiliency,' she said. AI adoption is accelerating among nurses as they become more comfortable with its use, according to a newly released survey by Incredible Health. Only 38% of nurses now fear AI will hurt their jobs, down from nearly two-thirds last year. Meanwhile 85% of nurses say they want more training on how to use AI in their jobs. Plus: The FDA announced it has begun using AI tools in its internal processes, but NBC News reports that they struggle to perform simple tasks. The Department of Health and Human Services cancelled a contract with Moderna valued at up to $760 million for its development of an mRNA vaccine against potential pandemic viruses, such as avian flu, which is currently circulating in livestock in the United States. The company said that initial clinical trials showed the vaccine candidate was both safe and effective. Moderna said it was exploring options to continue the vaccine's development. HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon called mRNA technology 'under-tested' in a statement provided to Forbes. 'We are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public.' Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Forbes that Nixon's comments were 'complete misinformation,' and that mRNA vaccines are an important tool in combatting an infectious disease emergency because of how quickly they can be developed and manufactured. 'You need to have something that's going to be fast,' he said. Forbes profiled Maky Zanganeh, Summit Therapeutics co-CEO, Iranian immigrant and cancer survivor, as part of the America's Richest Self-Made Women list. The Trump Administration has paused appointments for new student visas as it comes up with a plan to review applicant's social media accounts. That means hundreds of newly-minted M.D.'s may not be able to start their residencies. The budget bill that passed the House of Representatives makes significant changes to Medicaid that could result in 7 million people losing their health insurance. The Trump Administration ordered VA doctors and scientists not to publish in journals without first seeking clearance from political appointees, the latest effort to restrict federal researchers' publications. Startup Vivodyne raises $40 million to expand the development of its lab-grown human tissues for use in drug discovery as the FDA and NIH push back on animal testing. (Read our 2023 profile of the company here.) Sanofi plans buy Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech Blueprint Medicines for $9.1 billion in a bid to bolster its rare immunology pipeline. New drug delivery technologies, now undergoing clinical testing, can move medicine to the brain, which may enable better treatments for Alzheimer's and other diseases. The FDA has approved Moderna's new Covid vaccine for adults over 65 and those older than 12 with risk factors. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic, has pushed for new restrictions on vaccine eligibility and approval. Young, healthy adults would not be eligible for the new vaccine, despite their inclusion in Moderna's clinical trials. Stat profiled DOGE's Brad Smith, the healthcare entrepreneur behind $67 billion in spending cuts.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Police chiefs and Government watchdogs write to PM in warning over funding cuts
Senior police chiefs and Government watchdogs have written to the Prime Minister warning they will be forced to make choices about which crimes they investigate if the Government announces spending cuts to policing, while victim support services are being 'pushed to the brink'. In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan Police, warned that cuts to police budgets will have 'far-reaching consequences', The Times reports. Meanwhile, in a separate letter, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales Dame Nicole Jacobs and Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales Baroness Newlove wrote to Sir Keir saying victim support services are being 'pushed to the brink', hit by funding cuts and rising costs. The spending review is due on Wednesday next week, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces 'unavoidably tough decisions' as the demands of NHS and defence spending raise the prospect of cuts in other departments. The letter from the police chiefs, which was signed by other senior police officers, said that negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office were going 'poorly'. 'A settlement that fails to address our inflation and pay pressures would entail stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise,' it read. Last week, senior police officers – including Sir Mark – wrote a letter in the Times calling on the Government for 'serious investment' in the spending review, which will set out the Government's day-to-day departmental budgets for the next three years. 'A lack of investment will bake in the structural inefficiencies for another three years and will lose a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the service,' the letter warned. Sir Mark also voiced his concern that fewer criminals serving jail time under proposals to end prison overcrowding will 'generate a lot of work for police'. As well as increasing demand and new online threats from organised crime, Sir Mark and the other chiefs said the emergency release of prisoners to alleviate overcrowding and recommendations in the sentencing review would put more pressure on policing. Dame Nicole and Baroness Newlove welcomed Sir Keir's 'personal commitment to halving violence against women and girls within a decade' in their letter but said they were concerned that 'funding cuts and scaled back ambition are leading to piecemeal policies'. They called for a 'clear, well-funded national approach to prevent and respond to abuse, violence, and exploitation of women and girls'. They added: 'With bold and ambitious investment, we can finally tackle the systemic stain of violence and abuse, one that would see us get to grips with misogyny, ensure victims can recover from trauma and build a criminal justice system that delivers for survivors every single time.' On Wednesday, the Transport Secretary denied that some of her Cabinet colleagues are engaged in a row over funding for the police. Asked about reports that negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office ahead of next week's spending review were ongoing, Heidi Alexander told Times Radio: 'I know that the Chancellor, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, they are working hand-in-glove with the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.' Responding to the suggestion they were 'having a row', she said: 'I'm not privy to any of those conversations. 'All that I've seen is a really collegiate atmosphere around the Cabinet table on the part of every single Cabinet member that we can start to deliver on our plan for change, we can get the economy firing on all cylinders, that we recruit those extra police officers – which was a big commitment at the election – that we can invest in the NHS, we can invest in our public transport in terms of the announcement that we are making today.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are backing the police to protect our communities and keep our streets safe with up to £17.6 billion this year, an increase of up to £1.2 billion. 'This includes £200 million to kickstart putting 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and special constables that the public will see back on their streets and patrolling communities, as part of our Plan for Change.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Police chiefs and Government watchdogs write to PM in warning over funding cuts
Senior police chiefs and Government watchdogs have written to the Prime Minister warning they will be forced to make choices about which crimes they investigate if the Government announces spending cuts to policing, while victim support services are being 'pushed to the brink'. In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan Police, warned that cuts to police budgets will have 'far-reaching consequences', The Times reports. Meanwhile, in a separate letter, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales Dame Nicole Jacobs and Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales Baroness Newlove wrote to Sir Keir saying victim support services are being 'pushed to the brink', hit by funding cuts and rising costs. The spending review is due on Wednesday next week, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces 'unavoidably tough decisions' as the demands of NHS and defence spending raise the prospect of cuts in other departments. The letter from the police chiefs, which was signed by other senior police officers, said that negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office were going 'poorly'. 'A settlement that fails to address our inflation and pay pressures would entail stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise,' it read. Last week, senior police officers – including Sir Mark – wrote a letter in the Times calling on the Government for 'serious investment' in the spending review, which will set out the Government's day-to-day departmental budgets for the next three years. 'A lack of investment will bake in the structural inefficiencies for another three years and will lose a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the service,' the letter warned. Sir Mark also voiced his concern that fewer criminals serving jail time under proposals to end prison overcrowding will 'generate a lot of work for police'. As well as increasing demand and new online threats from organised crime, Sir Mark and the other chiefs said the emergency release of prisoners to alleviate overcrowding and recommendations in the sentencing review would put more pressure on policing. Dame Nicole and Baroness Newlove welcomed Sir Keir's 'personal commitment to halving violence against women and girls within a decade' in their letter but said they were concerned that 'funding cuts and scaled back ambition are leading to piecemeal policies'. They called for a 'clear, well-funded national approach to prevent and respond to abuse, violence, and exploitation of women and girls'. They added: 'With bold and ambitious investment, we can finally tackle the systemic stain of violence and abuse, one that would see us get to grips with misogyny, ensure victims can recover from trauma and build a criminal justice system that delivers for survivors every single time.' On Wednesday, the Transport Secretary denied that some of her Cabinet colleagues are engaged in a row over funding for the police. Asked about reports that negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office ahead of next week's spending review were ongoing, Heidi Alexander told Times Radio: 'I know that the Chancellor, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, they are working hand-in-glove with the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.' Responding to the suggestion they were 'having a row', she said: 'I'm not privy to any of those conversations. 'All that I've seen is a really collegiate atmosphere around the Cabinet table on the part of every single Cabinet member that we can start to deliver on our plan for change, we can get the economy firing on all cylinders, that we recruit those extra police officers – which was a big commitment at the election – that we can invest in the NHS, we can invest in our public transport in terms of the announcement that we are making today.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are backing the police to protect our communities and keep our streets safe with up to £17.6 billion this year, an increase of up to £1.2 billion. 'This includes £200 million to kickstart putting 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and special constables that the public will see back on their streets and patrolling communities, as part of our Plan for Change.'
E&E News
7 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
National heritage areas cut from Trump budget
Lands around the country that are supported by the National Park Service because of their historical importance would lose funding under President Donald Trump's proposed budget. The Trump administration cut to national heritage area funding was included in a budget proposal for fiscal 2026 released Friday. It also called for slashing the National Park Service operations budget by roughly $1 billion and suggested the transfer of some national park locations to state management. The heritage area cuts would upset the mix of government and private dollars that support more than 60 national heritage areas in the United States, which include the coal region of West Virginia and the Civil War battlefields of Tennessee. Advertisement Eliminating the heritage area funding aligns with the Trump administration's cost-cutting agenda for federal services, but it's unclear how the proposal would play among congressional appropriators who determine the final budget.
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The chaos Elon Musk and Doge are leaving behind in Washington
Elon Musk formally exited his role in the Trump administration on Wednesday night, ending a contentious and generally unpopular run as a senior adviser to the president and de facto head of the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge). Though he promised efficiency and modernization, Musk leaves behind a trail of uncertainty and reduced functionality. The timing of Musk's departure lines up with the end of his 130-day term limit as a 'special government employee' but also plays a part in an effort by the billionaire to signal a wider shift away from Washington as he faces backlash from the public and shareholders. Musk has recently made a show of refocusing his efforts on his tech companies in interviews, saying that he has spent too much time focused on politics and plans to reduce his political spending in the future. As Musk moves on, he consigns a mess of half-realized plans and gutted agencies to his acolytes installed in key positions across the federal government. His departure throws Doge's already chaotic impact on the government into an even grayer limbo, with questions over how much power the nebulous taskforce will have without him and who, if anyone, might rebuild the programs and services it destroyed. Musk's initial pitch for Doge was to save $2tn from the budget by rooting out rampant waste and fraud, as well as to conduct an overhaul of government software that would modernize how federal agencies operate. Doge so far has claimed to cut about $140bn from the budget – although its 'wall of receipts' is notorious for containing errors that overestimate its savings. Donald Trump's new tax bill, though not part of Doge and opposed by Musk, is also expected to add $2.3tn to the deficit, nullifying any savings Doge may have achieved. Its promises of a new, modernized software have frequently been limited to AI chatbots – some of which were already in the works under the Biden administration. The greater impact of Doge has instead been its dismantling of government services and humanitarian aid. Doge's cuts have targeted a swath of agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization, which handles weather and natural disaster forecasting and plunged others such as the Department of Veterans Affairs into crises. Numerous smaller agencies, such as one that coordinates policy on homelessness, have been in effect shut down. Doge has brought several bureaus to their knees, with no clear plan of whether the staff Musk leaves behind will try to update or maintain their services or simply shut them off. In one early example of its cuts and the holes in government they have created, Doge targeted the government tech group that partnered with federal agencies to provide tech solutions, known as 18F. When Doge staffers entered the General Services Administration agency that housed the 18F Office, former employees have said they appeared to fundamentally misunderstand how the government operates and the challenges of creating public services. Former 18F director Lindsay Young, who is now part of a legal appeal that contends the firing of 18F violated legal requirements, is concerned that Doge's cuts will have long-lasting effects on government functions. 'In government, it's just so much easier to tear things down than it is to build things up,' Young said. The mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services represented a similar loss of institutional knowledge that Doge does not seem intent on replacing. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who has been tracking Doge's cuts, used the agency's tobacco unit as an example, which was severely affected by the cuts. 'The loss of so much expertise, especially in the healthcare area will mean that more Americans will become sick or die earlier than they might have,' he said. 'It also may take many years and great expenditure of resources to restore that experience and expertise.' Musk's gutting of USAid, formerly the world's largest single provider of humanitarian aid, is one of the starkest examples of the disarray and harm that Doge's cuts have caused. The US canceled approximately 83% of USAid programs, imperiling services around the world aimed at humanitarian assistance and disease prevention. One pioneering program under USAid, Pepfar, which coordinates the US HIV/Aids response, has seen its services reduced worldwide and its staff left in confusion over what they can still do for people who relied on their organization. Doge's cuts to the program have likewise threatened the rollout of a new anti-HIV drug that researchers have hailed as a 'miracle' for its effectiveness. As Musk returns to Tesla and SpaceX, the agencies he laid waste to are left to pick up the pieces. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion While Musk is returning to his tech empire, many of the former employees and inexperienced young engineers whom he hired to work for Doge are set to remain part of the government. One of the largest questions about what Doge's future looks like is whether these staffers, some of whom gained near unfettered access to the government's most sensitive data, will retain the same powers they enjoyed under Musk. Doge staffers, such as billionaire investor and Musk ally Antonio Gracias, have embedded themselves at key agencies such as the Social Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration. They have worked as a sort of parallel government task force, operating with a lack of transparency as their attempts to access databases and migrate data has caused disarray and technical problems. Whether Trump and agency heads allow them to continue on with carte blanche remains unseen. Already at least two prominent Doge staffers have followed Musk to the exit. The billionaire's longtime top lieutenant Steve Davis, who was running the day-to-day operations of Doge, left his role on Thursday. Spokesperson Katie Miller, wife of Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, also left the White House to work full-time for Musk, according to CNN. Some of Musk's dictates have already been rolled back since he left Washington earlier this month, including a much-derided mandate that required federal employees to send a list of five things that they accomplished each week. The weekly email, which was initially introduced with the threat of being fired for non-compliance, was largely ignored and viewed by many as pointless busywork. On Wednesday, the Pentagon formally announced that it would halt the practice. Doge is not being left leaderless, however. Taking over for Musk, according to the Wall Street Journal, is Christian nationalist and key figure in the rightwing Project 2025 manifesto Russ Vought. A longtime believer that the president should have sweeping executive powers, Vought has said that he wants federal employees to be left 'in trauma' and to slash federal funding. Musk has praised Doge's work and pledged that it will continue without him, and as recently as this week is still removing veteran officials it disagrees with from federal agencies. Even at reduced numbers, Musk's allies also still have access to immense amounts of sensitive and confidential data they are reportedly intending to use to surveil immigrants. What seems farther away than ever in the chaos, however, is Musk's promise to make the government more efficient and better serve the public. 'You don't need that many people to decide to just cut things,' 18F's Young said. 'But if you actually want to build things, that takes thought. It takes effort.'
