Judge temporarily blocked NIH research funding cut, sparing Philly researchers the loss of millions
The University of Pennsylvania said the funding that was at risk of being cut before a restraining order took effect supports more than 4,500 jobs.
A federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from sharply reducing a portion of National Institutes of Health funding that fuels massive research enterprises at the University of Pennsylvania and other top research institutions.
Penn is the largest recipient of NIH funding in the Philadelphia region and stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars under the directive announced by the NIH late Friday, which would limit the amount it provides researchers for ancillary costs to 15% of the underlying research grant.
Penn, also one of the nation’s largest recipients of NIH grants, currently receives 62.5% of the basic grant to cover facilities, administrative costs, and even caring for animals used in research.
Penn was part of a lawsuit filed Monday by the Association of American Universities and other similar educational groups seeking a temporary restraining order against the funding change. The complaint said that the “flagrantly unlawful action by the National Institutes of Health” would “devastate medical research at America’s universities.”
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley agreed that the research institutions would “sustain immediate and irreparable injury” before there is a chance to hear arguments in court if she did not grant the nationwide temporary restraining order. Kelley made the same decision in two other lawsuits filed Monday.
In addition to Penn, other Philadelphia-area institutions that receive large amounts of NIH funding include Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University, and Drexel University.
In a document filed as part of the Association of American Universities lawsuit, Elizabeth Duggins Peloso, Penn’s senior associate vice president for research, said that if the reduction took effect immediately, as the Trump administration intended, the school would lose $170.9 million in the remainder of this year.
The university had said Monday that “the cuts announced by NIH would reduce federal funding to Penn by nearly a quarter of a billion dollars per year.” That $240 million estimate is based on the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. It includes the impact on current grants and projected new awards, Stephen J. MacCarthy, Penn’s interim vice president for university communications, said Tuesday in an email.
The potential impact on Penn
In the document, Peloso provided additional details on how Penn uses the funding for what are called “indirect costs” and how many jobs would be at risk if the NIH funding change took effect.
NIH has 1,803 active grants at Penn and 126 clinical trials with 50,174 patients. The trials include 48 with 12,000 patients in cancer studies and 250 patients in studies of immune therapies.
The funding at stake supports the care of 16,000 mice used to develop therapies for HIV, autoimmune diseases, and cancer, according to the document. Specifically, indirect funding pays “the cost of 5,333 cages, 11 mice caretakers, four cage wash technicians, three veterinary technicians, one veterinarian, cage equipment costs, feed, bedding, enrichment, water bottles for all animals, and regulatory and facility support,” Peloso wrote.
Peloso also said 350 of 529 employees who support research and compliance potentially could lose their jobs if the Trump administration cuts indirect funding. An additional 2,296 jobs in facilities and 1,742 jobs in administration are supported by indirect funding. She did not specify how many of those jobs are at risk from a funding cut.