Pierre Azoulay

A new study found that more than half of drugs approved by the FDA since 2000 used NIH-funded research that would likely not have happened if the NIH had operated with a 40% smaller budget. "We can't say, 'But for that grant, that drug would not have come into existence,'" said professor Pierre Azoulay, a co-author of the study. "But it makes us at least want to pause and say, 'What are we doing here? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot?'"

A new study by professors Pierre Azoulay, Danielle Li, and co-authors, has revealed the potential impacts a smaller National Institutes of Health (NIH) would have had on past drug development. If the NIH budget had been 40% smaller from 1980 to 2007 — the level of cuts that President Donald Trump has proposed for the agency — the science underlying numerous drugs approved in the 21st century would not have been funded, according to the analysis. "Cuts today are going to have effects starting 15 years from now, roughly, and then accelerating from there," Azoulay said.

Professor Pierre Azoulay found that immigrants are 80% more likely to start businesses. Their companies generate 50% more jobs and pay about 1% higher wages than firms started by native-born Americans. Historically, a 1% increase in immigrant population has correlated with a 15% rise in patents per capita, fueling long-term economic growth. 

"I think we shouldn't be Covid-obsessed when we think about NIH reform, and this set of proposals is."