11/18/2025

Federal Futs Upended Clinical Trials

Nearly 400 clinical trials were terminated, impacting more than 74,000 trial participants

Amy Nunn and Philip Chan had just started to enroll participants in a federally funded clinical trial for HIV prevention when their work came to an abrupt halt in early March.

"I panicked," said Nunn, CEO of the nonprofit Rhode Island Public Health Institute (RIPHI), whose research was focused on Black and Hispanic men and their use of the preventive medication for HIV known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). "I was worried we might lose everything."

Their study was one of many clinical trials that lost funding this year after the Trump administration slashed millions in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. From the end of February to August, grants for 383 clinical trials were terminated, and the funding disruptions affected more than 74,000 trial participants, according to new research published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.