Cuts to NIH, FDA could slash drug approvals: 5 notes

An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office warns that cuts to the National Institutes of Health and FDA drug reviews could significantly reduce the number of new medications reaching the U.S. 

The report, requested by Democratic lawmakers, examined a hypothetical 10% permanent reduction in NIH funding and a nine-month increase in FDA approvals for new drugs. The report shows how even modest changes in funding and approval timelines could impact the pharmaceutical pipeline. 

Here are five notes: 

1. The 10% cut to NIH funding, especially to external preclinical research, would lead to roughly 4.5% fewer new drug approvals, or about two fewer drugs per year, once fully phased in over 30 years.
2. The reduction would slow the supply of drug candidates entering clinical trials, resulting in nine fewer drugs approved annually in the second decade after implementation and 20 fewer per year by the third decade.
3. The NIH has rescinded more than $3.2 billion in research funding so far in 2025, terminating 2,548 grants nationwide, according to a June report from Grant Watch, a volunteer project tracking scientific funding. President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget would also slash NIH funding by $18 billion, from $46.4 billion to $27.5 billion.
4. The report also showed that the nine-month increase in FDA review times for new drug applications would both delay market entry and raise development costs, reducing drug approvals by 2% annually.
5. While some lawmakers asked the CBO to analyze NIH cuts as high as 35% to 38%, the agency noted that it has not assessed whether historical trends can reliably predict the impact of reductions of that magnitude.