James Alwine and Gregg Gonsalves , 2025-06-26 08:30:00
The United States’ public health and biomedical research enterprise has arguably been the greatest effort of its kind in modern history, whether you measure it in Nobel Prizes, drugs developed, or patents granted. No other country comes close to this American achievement. For generations, it has been a boon for the health of all Americans and the world.
Yet this amazing example of American creativity and caring is now being destroyed. The administration has declared war on public health and bioscience research. Devastating attacks have been aimed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and particularly the National Institutes of Health. Currently $2.7 billion has been cut from the NIH budget, derailing vital research funding at universities and research institutions in every state. And this does not include the additional cuts to research institutions for the operating costs needed to maintain the research. Worse, there is the potential death blow of the massive 40% cut to NIH in the “big, beautiful bill” proposed for the next fiscal year. The health of all Americans is in peril, yet many are completely unaware.
Over the past few months, several op-eds and commentaries have offered solutions to keep U.S. science moving forward in the face of the massive cuts. Many of these solutions suggest partnering with industry and the private sector, which have a vested interest in research.
But private sector companies, especially in pharma, have relied on NIH funding to universities and research institutions to do the riskier discovery-based research that provides the foundation for commercially viable projects, like drug development and clinical trials. Without NIH funding, the private sector would be made to pay for this foundational research, which would not be profitable without greatly increasing prices to the consumer. In reality, this approach could not sustain the robust research apparatus that existed in the U.S. prior to Jan. 20, 2025.
Other proposals suggest that philanthropy is an avenue to maintain the U.S. research infrastructure. But let’s consider the cost. There are hundreds of research universities and institutions in every state that have lost NIH funding. A few examples include Harvard University, which is potentially losing at least $2.1 billion in grants; Columbia University ($400 million), and Stanford University ( $160 million per year). While philanthropy may be a short-term fix, research is not a one-time investment — it goes on and must be renewed. How long can the philanthropists be counted on? How deep are their pockets?
These pieces suggest that such approaches could stave off a decline in U.S. research. Such optimism is naïve, offering false hope to both scientists and the general public.
The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world — no other government spends as much on this research, nor do large foundations come close to the size of the federal investment in research. Individual investment by state, private, and corporate donations also pale in comparison to what is needed to replace NIH support. Additionally, the establishment of new private entities to protect projects banned by the Trump administration will not be large enough to fill the gaps that will follow the destruction of the NIH.
Only by restoring what has been cut by the Trump White House can we rescue American science, and time is of the essence. We need all scientists, all universities to sound the alarm. Right now, too many are sitting on the sidelines. We are already losing the next generation of scientists, as the war on science is driving them to choose other professions or to seek greener pastures abroad to conduct their research. Recovering from this loss will be very hard, maybe impossible, but it will certainly happen if we don’t try to stop the loss of science funding.
The longer we wait to confront these facts, the worse it will get. We should neither try to sugar-coat the situation with weak alternative funding plans nor should we believe that the administration has any notion of the public good in mind with their actions. Every American scientist must come out of the lab and protest. Otherwise, their labs will be gone before they know it. Every president or CEO of a research university or institution needs to tell the country what is at stake for the health and wellness of everyone from coast to coast. Every caring American must stop thinking “How can this be happening?” It is happening, and that requires immediate action. Our lives and the future of science depend on it.
James Alwine is professor emeritus of cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Gregg Gonsalves is an associate professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. Drs. Alwine and Gonsalves are members of Defend Public Health.
