Contracts related to the vaccine at the Boston Children’s Hospital ‘stopped’ in the midst of the uncertainty of financing

A senior Boston Children’s hospital official said that vaccines related to the medical center and multiple federal agencies have “arrested” in the midst of President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce federal funds that are not aligned with their policy opinions.

The hospital is the main receiver of pediatric research funds from the National Health Institutes with more than $ 200 million that flow towards the institution every year. But an effort to reduce funds to the Medical Research Agency could reduce annual financing for Boston children in half.

The financial impact of detainees was not clear immediately.

The CEO of the Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Kevin Churchwell, said that it has stopped “significantly” at the hospital’s work around vaccines, including the contracts that the medical center has with the centers for the control and prevention of diseases and the food and drug administration of the United States.

“Every Friday we listen to something, and is causing not only the cut that happens, but also the anxiety of which he spoke (Governor Maura Healey) of our research staff, our research company,” he said on Monday. “This is where the falciform cell is being solved. This is where cystic fibrosis was resolved. It is where polyomyelitis and the problems we face were solved are problems that we are very concerned. “

Churchwell said that contracts arrested with the CDCs and the FDA include work to monitor the flu, although the hospital executive said there have been no reductions in personnel in Boston Children’s.

When Trump was assigned to Washington and began to reduce federal expenditure, he also addressed medical research through a NIH policy that would finally strip programs financing throughout the country, even for indirect costs linked to the study of various diseases and diseases.

White House officials argued that indirect costs were “general expenses” expenses that could be cut.

The new policy limits that additional subsidy money institutions receive indirect costs associated with a 15% project instead of the previous rule that allowed the Government to negotiate rates directly with hospitals or universities.

But medical facilities and higher education institutions that benefit from money have counteracted that extra cash is crucial to operate complicated machinery or use personnel who ensure that researchers follow the safety rules.

A group of state prosecutors, including Massachusetts attorney general, Andrea Campbell, sued the Trump administration, arguing cuts to the financing of medical investigation would cause “irreparable damage.”

A federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary judicial order earlier this month to stop the fund cuts as a lawsuit develops.

Healey, who toured the Boston’s Children’s Hospital and the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit on Friday afternoon, said Trump’s “attacks” in medical research funds “are directly addressed” to children in Boston.

“That’s what is at stake,” he said. “NIH cuts are already interrupting medical research and clinical trials. Children receive, for example, $ 230 million from NIH funds every year, and could lose more than half of that financing due to these cuts. That means stopping research in diseases that damage children, starting the hope of families. “

Federal prosecutors of the United States Department of Justice have argued that the policy that limits the indirect cost rate to 15% “will not change the total expenditure of NIH subsidies; rather, it simply restarts that it grants spending away from indirect costs and towards the direct financing of the investigation.”

In a judicial presentation last month, federal prosecutors said policy would ensure that NIH subsidies financed investigation in “the core of their mission” by minimizing payments due to “general expenses” costs that are difficult to supervision of the agency.

The policy would also put the indirect cost rates of the NIH “in line with the lowest indirect cost rates (and, therefore, less expenses), provided by the private grantors and accepted by the beneficiaries,” lawyers said in judicial documents.

“Even so, the plaintiffs invite this Court to overturn NIH’s effort to administer their subsidies in a way that has concluded that it best promotes public health, all so that they and the titular beneficiaries they represent can receive greater payments of indirect costs that they claim should be under the original indirect cost terms of their plants,” federal prosecutors said.

By presenting the lawsuit together with 21 other state prosecutors, Campbell said the Trump administration was trying to “illegally undermine our economy, the hamstrings of our competitiveness, (and) play politics with our public health.”

“Massachusetts is the country’s medical research capital. We are the proud home of leading universities and research institutions in the nation that save lives, create jobs and help ensure a better future, ”Campbell said in a statement.

Associated Press materials were used in this report.