NIH Funding Cut by 40 Percent in Trump Admin's FY2026 Budget Proposal

Original from: 360dx

The Trump administration's fiscal-year 2026 budget proposal calls for a roughly 40 percent cut in funding for the National Institutes of Health.

According to a draft of the budget proposal from April 10, obtained by the Substack publication Inside Medicine and authenticated by the Washington Post, the administration is requesting approximately $27 billion in funds for NIH in 2026, down from roughly $47 billion in 2025.

The proposal also details the administration's plan to consolidate multiple agencies within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the elimination of four NIH institutes or centers and the combination of the remaining 23 into a total of eight.

Under the plan, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) would cease to be a distinct entity and would be folded into the National Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) along with the existing NIMS, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering.

The budget calls for a roughly 34 percent cut in overall HHS spending, setting it at approximately $80 billion in 2026, down from about $121 billion in 2025.

The proposal is in line with plans previously announced by HHS to lay off around 10,000 full-time employees and consolidate its 28 divisions into 15 new ones. As part of that process, the NHGRI began laying off dozens of employees at the beginning of April. It also put acting director Vence Bonham Jr on indefinite administrative leave, after former NHGRI Director Eric Green's term was not renewed when it ended March 17.

Presidents are required by law to submit annual budget proposals to Congress, but Congress is not required to and often does not follow the president's proposal when crafting the federal budget. During his first term, each of President Donald Trump's annual budget proposals called for cuts to NIH — including a proposed 22 percent cut in 2018 — but actual NIH spending went up each year.

Nonetheless, the depth of the proposed cuts, as well as the administration's demonstrated willingness to hold back spending already appropriated by Congress, could cause concern among academic researchers and life science tools companies.

A number of tools companies have significant exposure to US government and academic spending and would likely see a meaningful impact from large NIH funding cuts. In a note to investors on Wednesday, JP Morgan analyst Rachel Vatnsdal highlighted as firms with such exposure 10x Genomics (roughly 35 percent to 40 percent), Seer (roughly 30 percent), and Illumina (25 percent). The note put Bruker's exposure at roughly 8 percent, Thermo Fisher Scientific's at 7 percent to 8 percent, Revvity's at 5 percent, Waters' at 4 percent, Agilent's at 3 percent, and Danaher's at less than 2 percent.

Source: NIH Funding Cut by 40 Percent in Trump Admin's FY2026 Budget Proposal