Erin Schumaker

3 weeks ago | politico.com | Erin Schumaker

Researchers are starting to quantify rolling cuts to grants at the National Institutes of Health. Those cuts amounted to $1.8 billion in terminated funding for 694 grants between Feb. 28 and April 8, according to a research letter published last week in JAMA. Nearly every one of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers lost grant funding. But no group was hit harder than the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which saw 77 grants terminated, or 30 percent of its funding.

3 weeks ago | politico.com | Erin Schumaker

The funding whiplash demonstrates some of the practical consequences of the Trump administration’s rapid-fire approach to cutting federal spending, where even the potential for funding lapses create real setbacks. “Not knowing when, or even if this extension was going to happen, it was very problematic,” said Tom Blanchard, director of Maryland’s brain bank.

1 month ago | politico.com | Erin Schumaker

The Texas state Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill to study the psychedelic drug ibogaine, derived from an African shrub, as a mental health treatment. The bill would create a grant program through Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission for developing and evaluating clinical trials, with the aim of gaining Food and Drug Administration approval of ibogaine as a drug therapy. Before the vote, the bill’s sponsor, Texas state Sen.

1 month ago | politico.com | Danny Nguyen |Erin Schumaker

Pharma and biotech companies looking for consistency and predictability in an evolving health-artificial intelligence regulatory pipeline might find it at the Food and Drug Administration — even as the Trump administration shakes up the government, said attorneys at a health policy summit. Hogan Lovells, a prominent law and lobbying firm, hosted the event earlier this week in Washington.

1 month ago | politico.com | Erin Schumaker

The director of national intelligence told podcast host Megyn Kelly she’s working with top HHS officials to investigate Covid-19’s origins. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said she's working with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to investigate Covid's origins. | Francis Chung/POLITICO National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard’s office is working with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and HHS Secretary Robert F.