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Canadian scientists say that the uncertainty surrounding US President Donald Trump is apparently dependent on federal health spending can stop research on new drugs, vaccines, treatments for cancer, dementia and more – including in laboratories in Canada.
US National Institutes of Health (National Institutes of Health) operate some of the best scientists around the world. most Among its $ 47 billion US budget in the United States last year, research that the agency considers “to promote health, prolong life, reduce disease and disabilities.” This includes the work of the Canadian researchers who received More than 40 million dollars The United States of financing last year.
Now there is confusion. On January 21, the Trump administration imposed the freezing of communications until February 1 for federal health officials. In the national health institutes, this means major meetings that decided to find the scientific research that was funded, with no word about the date of reschedule.
this week, NIH Web page On grants and financing, a information board for researchers announced unlimited changes that will affect “research grants for projects and fellowships and training grants” provided on January 25 or after.
In addition to chaos: In a separate step, the administration also froze hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants, loans and assistance on Monday, before the reversal of the session on Wednesday.
All this leaves many scientists – including scientists in Canada – are not sure of the future of their work.
Canadian Stephanie Strashdi moved to the United States in 1998 and is receiving NIH financing for her research to prevent HIV. It is awaiting a speech in submitting a new grant for $ 12 million and holding a meeting with the National Health Institutes next week on this topic.
“When I opened my computer and saw that the dollars from the National Health Institutes have been frozen, I was shocked,” Strashdi said.
Strathdee Professor at the University of California Medical College, San Diego. The research includes following large groups of people who use drugs over time to study HIV and hepatitis. Some of its works include studies in Canada with people who use medications to inform prevention and treatment in the United States and Canada and beyond.
Strashdi said that most of the researchers you know have already affected by temporary freezing on meetings, travel, communication and employment in the National Institutes of Health.
“In the best scenario, we face a great financing delay, and this means that the ways of living and students live in Canada and the United States are affected.”
Future consequences?
Researchers working in Canadian universities are also concerned about lack of clarity.
Nathan Spring is Professor James McGill in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University in Montreal, where he studies how the brain changes with our age. The National Health Institutes have funded his research on lonely, aging of the brain and Alzheimer’s disease.
Research such as Spreng’s can be delayed, if it suffers from lack of financing, developing future treatments.
“The consequences of this are just a real human suffering,” Spring said. “There are a number of diseases and injuries that have not been well treated at the present time. In the absence of this type of financing, these people will continue to suffer.”
The financing of the National Institutes of Health contributed to the development of all 356 drugs from 356 accredited by the US Food and Drug Administration between 2010 and 2019, which is the 2023 article in Jama Health Forum Suggest.
Spring said that the main concern is now within the scientific community revolves around the sections of the study of the National Institutes of Health, which are the paintings led by experts that classify proposals for financing.
“It will not be felt immediately,” Spring said. “It will take several years for a kind of cumulative influence to appear, but in all areas, what we will see is a fewer treatments, fewer innovations in medicine and continued health disorder.”
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Those working in the World Health Organization were expecting the worst – but the executive order of US President Donald Trump was still delighted. Dr. Barabat Jh, a global professor with the University of Toronto, defines the financial impact of the United States to leave the World Health Organization, and what it means for Canada and other countries that contribute to the organization.
The science community feels cold
An exception, according to To a note It was reported for the first time on Monday by Stat, a health news site and US -based news, for people registered in the clinical trials of potential drugs to travel to study sites.
But the ongoing confusion about influencing the financing of the National Health Institutes of Health continues.
“It is really freezing in science,” said Jim Wodgit, Cancer Researcher at the Lennvilde Tannabum Research Institute at the Sinai Health Institute in Toronto and Terry Fox Research Institute.
“We don’t know much about the details, and it seems that it changes every second,” he said. “I think the uncertainty in reality adds to the crisis.”
Woodgett, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, notes the main texture of medical research in this country, He has a budget From about $ 1.4 billion. Since 2016, the Canada government has invested $ 22 billion in science and research initiatives. For comparison, the national health institutes are spent more than twice that every year – more than $ 47 billion or $ 67 billion in Canadian dollars.
Strashdi, a HIV scientist, said that uncertainty with American financing opens the door for Canada to increase research financing and attract senior American scientists – or return Canadians home.
“This is an opportunity to emigrate brains, but the brain’s profit,” Strashdi said. “I am just one of many people who want to go home and have not gave up my collaborators in Canada.”
A spokesman for the Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry told CBC News that the government is witnessing the development of science and research in the United States closely.
Strathdi, which is currently moving between San Diego and Toronto, hedge her bets.
“If matters continue to wear in the United States and are intentional erosion of public health infrastructure, I will review my decision on the place where I will put the rest of my time in my career.”
