This is a great question. For some of the trials it wasn’t an issue of the funding freeze but the abrupt and unprecedented “stop work order” issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio (who is also acting Administrator of USAID). It was so immediate and sweeping that the research staff would have been violating it if they helped remove experimental devices (but some did anyway). Many of the trials were partnerships with U.S. drug companies who were testing products they hoped to sell to commercial markets overseas. It also affected a malaria vaccine trial at Oxford.
The funding situation is similar to described above—multi year contracts/agreements with USAID which investigators/partners expected the government to honor. Many studies probably had contingency plans for early termination, but those would depend on adequate warning (weeks if not months/years) to wind down activities.
Nothing like this has happened before and it will fundamentally change how the US government does business with companies—in sectors beyond health/aid.
This is a great question. For some of the trials it wasn’t an issue of the funding freeze but the abrupt and unprecedented “stop work order” issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio (who is also acting Administrator of USAID). It was so immediate and sweeping that the research staff would have been violating it if they helped remove experimental devices (but some did anyway). Many of the trials were partnerships with U.S. drug companies who were testing products they hoped to sell to commercial markets overseas. It also affected a malaria vaccine trial at Oxford.
The funding situation is similar to described above—multi year contracts/agreements with USAID which investigators/partners expected the government to honor. Many studies probably had contingency plans for early termination, but those would depend on adequate warning (weeks if not months/years) to wind down activities.
Nothing like this has happened before and it will fundamentally change how the US government does business with companies—in sectors beyond health/aid.
NYT has a great article on that goes into more detail—https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/health/usaid-clinical-trials-funding-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare