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MDA Condemns NIH Funding Cuts on Indirect Costs, Calls for Immediate Reversal
Washington, D.C – Monday, February 10, 2025 – Today, in response to the National Institutes of Health’s proposal to limit indirect costs to 15% of all grants, Donald S. Wood, PhD, President and CEO of Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), and Sharon Hesterlee, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of MDA, released the following statement:
“The neuromuscular disease community depends on a well-funded biomedical research ecosystem to discover breakthrough treatments and potential cures.
This is why MDA strongly condemns the National Institutes of Health’s policy guidance that all indirect costs will be capped at 15% in all grants. This arbitrary decision will prove catastrophic to neuromuscular disease research, and we call for NIH to immediately reverse this decision.
Our community depends on academic researchers funded by NIH to discover the underpinnings of neuromuscular diseases and unlock breakthrough treatments. NIH funding has led to the discovery of the underlying mechanisms of genetic neuromuscular diseases, breakthroughs in gene therapy for neuromuscular diseases, and effective treatments for spinal muscular atrophy, Pompe disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and more. A critical portion of this funding covers the unavoidable indirect costs of conducting this research, such as keeping the lights on, cleaning the labs, covering administrative costs, and much more.
If a 15% cap on indirect costs is implemented, current research will stop, clinical trials will shut down, research staff will be let go. As we sit on the cusp of genetic medicine breakthroughs for many neuromuscular diseases, these cuts are all the more unacceptable.
Combined with the ongoing freeze on scientific communication, the Administration continues to take actions that directly harm our biomedical research ecosystem.
By cutting research funding, this NIH action will jeopardize the health and wellbeing of generations of individuals with neuromuscular disease to come. This decision will also severely impact the next generation of neuromuscular clinicians as medical schools and research universities across the country will face substantial cuts. Much less cutting-edge research will be conducted, fewer doctors will be trained, fewer breakthroughs will be discovered, and thousands of lives will be impacted.”
