Republicans Are Crippling Medical Research Leaving Patients And Their Families Without Hope.

Alzheimer’s research needs sustained funding—not policies that make it harder for labs to keep the people and infrastructure needed to find a cure.  

• Over the last two years, the administration has disrupted, frozen, or canceled more than 5,700 medical research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Following litigation from academic institutions, roughly 4,500 were reinstated. A net total of over 2,300 NIH research grants remain permanently terminated or blocked.
• The administration slashed $539 million in unliquidated obligations from active, mid-stream medical studies. Prior to 2025, the NIH had terminated fewer than six grants mid-stream over a 13-year period.
• These cuts hit Alzheimer’s patients particularly hard, as there is no cure for the disease.

Instead of cutting waste, they’re causing it.  

• Clinical trials take years to build. Unlike shorter scientific experiments, tracking cognitive decline and testing new drug interventions requires tracking patient cohorts over years. If a research grant is abruptly canceled or delayed, the infrastructure supporting those patients collapses, and the multi-year timeline must often start over completely.
• According to Dr. Céline Gounder, at KFF Health News, “Cutting off funding mid-trial wastes research dollars and puts patients at risk.”
• Historically, federal scientific grants have been awarded through a rigorous system of independent, data-driven peer review. Policies that allow political appointees to bypass this process and terminate active grants for non-scientific reasons make long-term planning impossible for medical institutions and are incredibly wasteful.
• According to the National Institute of Health, it was estimated that Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias imposed $781 billion in total economic costs in 2025. This includes medical expenses, unpaid family caregiving, lost earnings and reductions in quality of life.