Virus Will Cost NIH $10 Billion in Lost Research, Director Warns (1)

The coronavirus pandemic will cost the NIH about $10 billion in taxpayer-funded research, the agency’s director told a Senate panel Thursday.

That estimate comprises nearly a quarter of the National Institutes of Health’s more than $41 billion budget, more than 80% of which goes to research grants at universities and other research institutions. NIH Director Francis S. Collins said that number includes both lost productivity from shuttered laboratories as well as keeping scientists and their staff employed.

“This is a heartache, seeing the rest of the scientific enterprise pretty much put on hold,” Collins said during a Senate Health Education ...