Federal judge blocks drastic funding cuts to medical research
[March 06, 2025]
By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MICHAEL CASEY
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from
drastically cutting medical research funding that many scientists say
will endanger patients and cost jobs.
The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups
of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses
of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and a host of other
illnesses — anything from clinical trials of new treatments to basic lab
research that is the foundation for discoveries.
Separate lawsuits filed by a group of 22 states plus organizations
representing universities, hospitals and research institutions
nationwide sued to stop the cuts, saying they would cause “irreparable
harm.”
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston had temporarily blocked the
cuts last month. Wednesday, she filed a preliminary injunction that puts
the cuts on hold for longer, while the suits proceed.
The NIH, the main funder of biomedical research, awarded about $35
billion in grants to research groups last year. The total is divided
into “direct” costs – covering researchers’ salaries and laboratory
supplies – and “indirect” costs, the administrative and facility costs
needed to support that work.
The Trump administration had dismissed those expenses as “overhead,” but
universities and hospitals argue they’re far more critical. They can
include such things as electricity to operate sophisticated machinery,
hazardous waste disposal, staff who ensure researchers follow safety
rules and janitorial workers.
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This photo provided by the National Institutes of Health shows the
James H. Shannon Building on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., in
2015. (Lydia Polimeni/NIH via AP)
 Under prior policy, the government
negotiated those rates with institutions. As an example, an
institution with a 50% indirect cost rate would get another $50,000
to cover indirect expenses for a $100,000 project. The NIH's new
policy would cap indirect costs at a flat rate of 15% instead,
calculated to save the agency $4 billion a year.
Dr. David J. Skorton of the Association of American Medical
Colleges, one of the plaintiffs, applauded the ruling. “These
unlawful cuts would slow medical progress and cost lives,” he wrote
in a statement, saying the NIH-funded research “benefits every
person and community in America.”
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH, did
not immediately reply to a request for comment.
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