NIH Grant Terminations Leave Thousands Without Access to Care, Study Finds

Key Takeaways383 clinical trials lost NIH funding, affecting more than 74,000 peopleCuts hit HIV, COVID-19, mental health and cancer studies the hardestSome grants were reinstated, but researchers say many studies were harmed.TUESDAY, Nov. 18, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Thousands of clinical trial participants lost access to important medical studies this year after the Trump administration terminated hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, according to new research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.The study found that 383 clinical trials had their NIH funding cut this year between late February and August, affecting more than 74,000 participants nationwide. Many of the canceled studies focused on infectious diseases, including HIV and COVID-19, as well as mental health and cancer.For researchers like Amy Nunn and Dr. Philip Chan at the Rhode Island Public Health Institute, the cuts brought their work to an immediate stop.“I panicked,” Nunn said to The Washington Post. “I was worried we might lose everything." Nunn is also a professor at Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island.Their HIV prevention trial focused on Black and Hispanic men and the use of PrEP, a medication that reduces the risk of HIV infection. Enrollment at two sites had to stop completely, and a third only continued because the team pulled together emergency non-federal funding.The new analysis shows that about 1 in 30 active trials lost funding. Studies involving infectious disease prevention and behavioral health were hit the hardest, along with more than 100 cancer trials. Research conducted outside the United States also saw cuts.While the Trump administration said the policy was aimed at stopping “wasteful” or “discriminatory” research, scientists say the cuts targeted critical public health work.“Clinical research is a long game,” Dr. Robert Hopkins, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told The Post.He added that the study showed how funding cuts disproportionately hit areas “that are critical to public health.”A federal judge later ordered hundreds of grants to be reinstated, including the PrEP trial led by Nunn and Chan. But many studies were already disrupted, sites had closed and folks lost access to care.During the pause, a clinic in Jackson, Mississippi — one of the PrEP trial sites — shut down. Nunn said efforts are underway to reopen it.“A lot of the clinical infrastructure was crippled or crushed because of the grant terminations, and it’s hard to build it back,” she said.But Chan, also a professor in the department of medicine at Brown University, worries about the real-world impact of those who couldn't participate in the trial.“I firmly believe that some of those folks got HIV,” Chan said in a report published by The Post.Even a temporary halt can harm studies that rely on steady medication use and consistent check-ins, researchers explained.“If you pause an experiment, especially when it comes to experiments involving drugs and patients where you need a consistent dose over time and consistent measurements, it’s possible that you just screwed up the entire research,” lead author Dr. Vishal Patel of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said to The Post.In August, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to move forward with nearly $800 million in NIH grant cuts affecting research on diseases in minority, LGBTQ and transgender communities.And many researchers fear more cuts are coming.“The reason all of those 383 trials were funded is because people believe they have novel solutions to important public health questions,” Nunn said. “The knowledge that we would have had about how we can enhance population health through those clinical trials will be lost.”More informationJAMA has more on the NIH cuts.SOURCE: The Washington Post, Nov. 17, 2025.What This Means For YouClinical trial cuts can delay new treatments for conditions like HIV, cancer and mental health..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter