What if 30% of the medicines you and your loved ones depend on were never invented?
Between 2001 and 2019, academic researchers contributed to more than a quarter of all approved medicines, including 37% of cancer medicines, according to the American Chemical Society. With NIH governmental support, biomedical research—the area of science that looks for ways to prevent and treat diseases—has been on a trajectory of remarkable progress. Survival rates for many cancers have strikingly improved due to science innovations spanning from early detection to lifesaving therapeutics, many of which originated at university laboratories.
But the decision to cut $4 billion from the NIH budget for biomedical research, as well as the freeze on disbursing more than a billion dollars in previously awarded grants, is shocking and shortsighted. This is not just a devastating blow to the scientific community—it is a mistake that jeopardizes the development of lifesaving medicines, undercuts the next generation of leaders in STEM, and stifles economic growth.
Lifesaving discoveries and inventions depend on indirect costs—laboratories with lights and heat, fume hoods to safely invent new molecules, biosafety cabinets to evaluate the emerging drugs with human cells, data management services to secure protected information, and the related necessary legal, accounting, and administrative costs familiar to any business. Draconian cuts to these vital elements of research undermine the viability of the whole endeavor.
The situation is dire. My colleagues and I could be forced to slow or even halt work on treatments for everything from blindness to brain diseases to breast cancer. In my own lab, we are engineering the immune system to be able to safely and precisely destroy cancer while not hurting neighboring healthy cells. We are also engineering the immune system to protect itself from autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes.
This is the type of research being frozen nationwide even as the next generation of biomedical scientists and engineers are being laid off because the anticipated funds to make payroll are no longer there.
The disastrous consequences extend further into the broader economy. Biomedical research is a powerful engine for job creation and economic growth. Basic discoveries from university labs today spawn new companies tomorrow and often mature into whole new industries.
Biomedical labs at universities have had a transformational effect on the economy, in both red states and blue states, creating millions of jobs. Here in Baltimore, I am excited to be part of a thriving ecosystem with Johns Hopkins inventors and entrepreneurs who over the past decade have created more than 150 small businesses. This has led to many jobs and brought in more than $4 billion in venture funding.
Cutting spending on biomedical science and technology with the goal of accelerating the economy is like removing the engine from a plane with the hope it would go faster by being lighter. With these backward movements, we are watching America cede its supremacy in biomedical science, and we may never regain our position.
Join me at the Stand Up for Science event in Washington, D.C., and nationwide on Friday, March 7: I'm standing up for science—because science saves lives. Science fuels the economy. Science is for everyone.
Jordan Green is the Herschel L. Seder Professor and vice chair for research and translation in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is also a professor of oncology, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, materials science & engineering, and chemical & biomolecular engineering. He is among the inaugural cohort of the university's Provost's Fellows for Public Engagement, a group of scholars selected to take part in a yearlong program designed to build their public engagement skills across a range of platforms and audiences.
