CHOP, Wistar and other Philly-area research institutions urge legislators to reject NIH cuts

Several major Philadelphia-area research institutions urged key Pennsylvania representatives in Congress to reject President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to federal research dollars, saying in a letter Wednesday that many Pennsylvanians depend on the state’s research sector for jobs.

Writing to Reps. Madeleine Dean (D., Montgomery) and Guy Reschenthaler (R., Fayette), who both serve on the House Appropriations Committee, the institutions described their concerns as an “urgent plea on behalf of the vast majority of Pennsylvanians who support American leadership in medical technology, and the large segment of Pennsylvania’s workforce dependent on that continued leadership for their livelihoods.”

The letter’s signatories included University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Wistar Institute, along with specialized research centers and advocacy groups.

The letter encourages Dean and Reschenthaler to follow the lead of their colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee, who last month voted to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by $400 million in the upcoming fiscal year — instead of cutting it by 40%, as Trump had proposed.

It’s part of a broader effort spearheaded by the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center, a nonprofit supporting scientific start-ups that’s based in Bucks County.

The organization hired Craig Snyder, a former chief of staff for the late Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, as a consultant to form a coalition of area research institutions pushing back on federal funding cuts.

“The reductions proposed by the president would be catastrophic,” Snyder said. “When the president’s budget proposal came out, with a 40% reduction in the overall NIH budget, there was a sense of urgency.”

The resulting Pennsylvania Ad Hoc NIH Funding Advocacy Coalition is designed to bring together institutions from across the state’s eds and meds sector, from research and academic medical facilities to for-profit biotech companies.

The Philadelphia region was hit hard by cuts to federal grants in the first few months of the Trump administration, which have faced legal challenges around the country.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Government Efficiency reported as of late June that they had terminated funding totaling $47 million for 96 grants covering a wide range of research topics at city institutions.

The Trump administration has offered few explanations for the criteria it used to make the cuts. An Inquirer analysis found that the administration had particularly targeted funding for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; LGBTQ health; and health disparities — research into the ways social factors like race and income affect a person’s health.

Some of that funding has since been returned to researchers, after a federal judge ruled that the cuts were discriminatory.

Pennsylvania research institutions hoping to stave off further cuts were encouraged by the Senate Appropriations Committee’s bipartisan effort to reject them.

At CHOP, NIH funding supports about 40% of the research underway, Peter Grollman, the hospital’s senior vice president for external affairs, said in a statement.

Such funding supported treatment breakthroughs like the recently announced gene-editing therapy used on KJ Muldoon, an infant whose rare liver condition was treated by personalized gene therapy at CHOP, he said.

“The treatment, built on decades of federally funded research, captured attention around the globe, reinforcing all that is possible when America takes the lead in fueling scientific discovery and innovation,” Grollman said.

Dario Altieri, president and CEO of the Wistar Institute, said about 65% of the biomedical research institute’s budget comes from the NIH.

So far, Wistar had not been significantly impacted by cuts to research, but he is concerned by the dramatic cuts proposed for the next fiscal year.

“The cuts that have been proposed are too severe,” he said. “It would disable the American research enterprise, not just at Wistar and in Pennsylvania but across every state.”

Altieri described the coalition’s advocacy on behalf of scientific research as a bipartisan issue.

“Cancer doesn’t care which political party you’re in,” he said.