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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: Trump shouldn't cut NIH funding

President Trump’s proposed cuts to the National Institute of Health will only harm the health of U.S. citizens and send us backwards in terms of medical 
technology.

For patients with Alzheimer’s, a drug named Memantine can slow down clinical deterioration. Human Papillomavirus has been linked to cervical cancer, and the resulting Gardasil vaccine helped diminish the risks.

Both of these studies involved funding from the NIH. The NIH also provided funding for clinical trials for cancer treatments and detecting and repairing DNA damage.

The cuts to the NIH that were in Trump’s proposed budget could inhibit the research community and could have hazardous effects on a multibillion-dollar 
industry.

Trump’s proposed budget would cut 20 percent of the NIH’s budget; the highest priority areas would be “suicide prevention, serious mental illness and children’s mental health” according to NPR. This cut seems to ignore the fact that scientific research is an extremely costly processes that takes years and often does not occur in a linear fashion.

For example, Memantine, which blocks a receptor in nerve cells and prevents them from overstimulation, was originally supposed to be a diabetes treatment.

Yet, it is now the only drug that has been approved for Alzheimer treatment in moderate to severe cases.

We may not stumble upon treatments like this if funding is curbed so 
severely.

Ignoring the scientific implications, cutting this funding would cut jobs.

The NIH and its grants have created more than 300,000 full and part-time jobs through research. These research grants led to the purchase from biotechnology companies that provide chemical and scientific supplies, the majority of which are in the United States. Less research equals to less money being spent on these product.

Additionally many pharmaceutical companies partner with the NIH in order to fund their research and development for new drugs. Drug research can cost upwards of one billion dollars for a new drug, so without NIH funding companies would be severely limited in how much they could spend treating new diseases.

Eli Lilly worked with the NIH in order to help eliminate multi-drug hesitance tuberculosis and provide funding for cures to rare diseases like hypoparathyroidism. This can have multiple effects in the future of healthcare.

Cancer treatments, drug cures and pharmaceutical treatments are all supported by funding through the NIH.

They help support multibillion-dollar companies and can provide relief to citizens. Cutting this research could diminish the possibilities of future cures and resolve some of the worst health crises that plague our country.

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