WASHINGTON (WCAX) – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says the Trump administration’s cuts in medical research are harming Americans and setting the country back decades.
The report from Sanders’ Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions analyzes data from the National Institutes of Health and draws from interviews with scientists, researchers, and workers. It found the NIH froze or terminated at least $561 million in research on the four leading causes of death in America.
That includes $273 million for cancer research, $111 million for heart disease research, $94 million for Alzheimer’s research, and $83 million for diabetes research.
The report also found that every drug invented with help from NIH scientists is cheaper for patients in other countries than in the United States.
Sanders said Johnson & Johnson charges Americans $57,000 per year for the HIV drug Symtuza. That same drug costs just $11,000 in the United Kingdom and $8,900 in Japan.
