The Trump administration’s proposed cuts at the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration could lower the number of new drugs that come to market in the next three decades, according to an analysis released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office.
Under hypothetical scenarios of a permanent 10 percent budget cut to the NIH and a nine-month drug review delay at the FDA due to staffing cuts, an estimated 53 drugs would not come to market over that time span, the budget office found. The analysis, requested by Senate and House Democrats, will likely become a main talking point for them during the fiscal 2026 appropriations process.
“The United States’ effort to bring cutting-edge treatments to patients with cancers, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases, will come to a grinding halt because of the Trump Administration’s devastating cuts to NIH and FDA funding,” Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Reps. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and Brendan F. Boyle, D-Pa., said in a statement.
