Coming soon: Fewer cancer research grants
The National Cancer Institute has informed researchers that it's limiting the number of awards it gives out for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The agency updated its funding policy, citing the White House's budget cut proposal for next year and a new National Institutes of Health policy, which requires the agency to provide at least half of the remaining funding for research project grants up front.
That change 'reduces the number of competing awards NCI can fund in this fiscal year,' NCI said, adding, 'With these considerations, we expect to fund through the 4th percentile.'
Before the announcement, the NCI had been funding around the top 7th percentile of new grants, which is already a conservative funding rate.
Key context: Typically, NIH research grants are awarded for multiple years and funded incrementally. The change to forward-funding grants, also included in the White House budget proposal, would give grant recipients that money up front.
For example, instead of spreading a $1 million award over four annual payments of $250,000, the full amount would now be paid in the first year.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) has emerged as the most prominent critic of forward funding in Congress, which she says would result in even deeper cuts to the NIH than the 40 percent cut proposed by the White House.
'It means billions will effectively be put in escrow and won't actually be spent on research for a number of years to come,' Baldwin said during an NIH budget hearing last month.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya defended the White House proposal. 'In the long run, what it does is allow you to spend more money and have more flexibility for new research projects,' he said.
What's next: Unless Congress acts, the same policy is expected to continue when the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1.
'What we're seeing now at NCI is a preview of what could happen next year if NIH continues this policy in FY26, but on an even larger scale,' Erik Fatemi, a principal at lobbying firm Cornerstone Government Affairs and former Democratic staffer on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with authority over health care spending, told Erin.
'Even if overall funding remains flat, NIH would fund significantly fewer new grants than this year. That means fewer shots on goal, and fewer chances to uncover the next breakthrough for patients.'
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Authorities are investigating the cases of two women who became critically ill after receiving peptide injections, an alternative therapy promoted by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at an anti-aging festival, ProPublica reports.
Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com.
Want to share a tip securely? Message us on Signal: Dannyn516.70, CarmenP.82, RuthReader.02 or ErinSchumaker.01.
THE NEXT CURES
The psychedelic drug ibogaine could be a promising treatment for veterans who develop mental health problems following a traumatic brain injury, the findings of a new, small study suggest.
The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies ibogaine, a psychedelic drug derived from an African shrub, as a Schedule I drug with no currently acceptable medical use and a high risk of abuse. It can pose heart risks and has been linked to about two dozen deaths in recent decades.
Inside the study: Stanford Medicine researchers analyzed brain scans of 30 male veterans who experienced traumatic brain injuries after exposure to blasts or combat, and who had post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety disorder or alcohol-use disorder.
— Study participants received a combination of ibogaine and magnesium, which has heart-protective properties.
— Participants had brain scans before treatment, three and a half days afterward and again one month after treatment.
— Unlike some trials of psychedelic therapies being studied as mental health treatments, such as MDMA, participants didn't engage in talk therapy during treatment.
Results: Participants who saw improvements in executive functioning also tended to show an increase in a brain wave pattern known as theta rhythms on their brain scans.
Those with improved PTSD symptoms after treatment tended to have reduced complexity of activity in the brain's cortex. The improvements lasted a month after treatment, which is when the study ended.
Researchers suggest that stronger brain waves in the theta region might encourage cognitive flexibility and neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to make new connections. Less complex brain activity might lower the heightened stress response associated with PTSD.
If they better understand those patterns, researchers think they might be able identify patients best suited for ibogaine treatment.
Even so: The study, published last week in Nature Mental Health, had limitations. In addition to being small, it was observational, meaning it can't determine cause and effect, and open-label without a control group, so participants knew they were getting the treatment.
More research, such as a randomized control trial, is needed to confirm the study's results.
Big picture: Last month, Texas' Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed a law to put $50 million into clinical trials of ibogaine as a mental health treatment.
Other states are looking to Texas as an example, including Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and West Virginia, according to W. Bryan Hubbard, who spearheaded the Texas bill and is executive director of the American Ibogaine Initiative.
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