How to Sustain Drug Discovery Research Amid Federal Budget Cuts

Earlier this year, the US administration started slashing funding for scientific research, which created ripples across the academic community as well as outside it. Shrinking budgets resulted in widespread layoffs of federal scientists, reduced PhD admissions, and even halted clinical trials.

In addition to destabilizing lives and livelihoods, budget cuts also impede promising research, delaying discoveries and innovations. Small biotechnology companies rely on federal funding for early-stage research and development of new drugs, technologies, and devices. Funding cuts, therefore, could pose a significant risk to drug discovery in the US.

In a commentary published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, pharmacologist Sean Ekins, CEO and cofounder of Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, and Barbara Slusher, a pharmacology and molecular sciences researcher at Johns Hopkins University, proposed strategies for continued progress in drug discovery.¹ They highlight approaches such as leveraging AI, looking out for alternate funding sources, forging new collaborations, and boosting public engagement and advocacy.

“Scientific innovation in the US is in jeopardy,” said Slusher in a statement. “These are some steps we could take to ensure continued scientific progress despite this challenging climate.”

Slashed Funding and Biomedical Innovation

The commercialization of a new drug after being discovered takes nearly a decade.² The early stages of this pipeline are usually carried out by small biotechnology companies and academic research labs, which in the US largely rely on funding granted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

For instance, the NIH budget was over $47 billion in 2024, and the government has proposed $18 billion in cuts for 2026. Such budget slashes are likely to affect both academic labs and small companies responsible for the first steps in drug development.

Larger companies rely on external innovation by small organizations, and a bottleneck at this stage of the drug development pipeline could compel them to turn to the global marketplace. This would create further uncertainty for American biomedical scientists.

“The concern is that if pharma is not finding innovative, license-ready programs emerging from US small companies and academic labs, they may increasingly look to other countries—such as China—where substantial investment in science and technology is generating a growing pipeline of assets,” said Slusher.

AI in Drug Discovery and Development

As AI-based tools become more advanced and reliable, researchers have been harnessing these to accelerate the process of drug development. AI can help scientists identify new drug targets, design new active compounds, predict drug efficacy and toxicity, and repurpose molecules.³ In combination with advanced experimental models, this can help shrink the timeline for drug discovery.

Additionally, computational methods could offer a cost-effective approach to guide experiments that are more likely to be successful. This can reduce the costs of consumables and running experiments in an already constrained budget environment.

“When traditional funding is scarce, computational approaches and AI offer a cost-effective way to accelerate discovery and reduce experimental overhead before expensive laboratory work is undertaken,” said Ekins.

Diversifying Funding Sources, Fostering Collaborations, and Commercializing Earlier

In addition to funding from government sources like the NIH, companies also acquire money from other sources. Some of these are philanthropic foundations, pharmaceutical company grants, and global charities. Scaling up grants from such sources could be key in the face of federal funding cuts.

“What I’ve learned over the last nine months is that we shouldn’t be reliant on a sole source for our research income,” said Slusher. “I think it’s an important lesson for all scientists to think about diversifying the way they are bringing in resources to fund their laboratories.”

One way to do this would also be to license and commercialize products sooner than companies would otherwise. Translating technologies into startups could attract potential investors.

Another strategy could be to engage in large collaborations, especially with international researchers. The COVID-19 crisis triggered unprecedented collaborations among research institutes, the outcome of which was meaningful work done within a span of months.⁴ Taking lessons from this, small research groups could reach out to their larger counterparts for sharing infrastructure, clinical samples, patient data, and funding.

Public Engagement and Advocacy to Overcome Funding Disruptions

Even as researchers focus on their work, they need to communicate the importance of funding scientific research, especially the kind that has translational potential, to the public. Stronger connections with patient advocacy groups could help scientists spread more awareness, which can in turn shape policies and funding-related decisions.

One way for scientists to step into the public sphere is to engage in social media, which is often dominated by influencers who may not have scientific expertise.

Finding ways to sustain healthcare innovation is crucial for drug development and by extension public health in the country. Because of the funding crisis, “Now is the time for scientists to stand up, speak out, rebuild, pushback,” wrote the authors. They hope that scientists’ resilient nature could protect the biomedical research field and support young talent in the country.

“We worry about the impact of these cuts on the next generation of scientists,” said Ekins. “Careers are made or broken with funding, and if the funding isn’t here, scientific talent is going to go elsewhere.”