The International Society of Cellular Therapy (ISCT) believes that the massive and unprecedented budget cuts to US governmental scientific agencies including the NIH (National Institutes of Health) and NSF (National Science Foundation) proposed by US President Trump, if implemented, will have wide ranging and potentially life threatening ramifications to science, clinical care and patients in the US and internationally.

The ISCT President, Dr. Catherine Bollard, states that the ISCT global leadership representing all stakeholders involved in cell therapy around the world believes many of the cuts proposed for the NIH by the Trump administration will directly and dangerously impact the entire international cell therapy, medical and scientific communities. 

Dr. Bollard highlights the example of the proposed elimination of the Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences, the NIH program promoting and funding medical research and training outside the US. Since the late 1960s, the Center has been instrumental in bringing together the international medical and scientific communities to address global health issues such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola. 

Dr. Bollard believes this is but one example of how the proposed cuts will significantly impact the international scientific community and further erode standards of safety and efficacy in the delivery of treatments to patients globally. There are many other potentially catastrophic consequences for international scientific research and health care. As a result, whilst ISCT does not commonly comment on the government budgets of individual countries, in this specific case, because of the potential widespread global impact of these propositions, ISCT vigorously opposes cuts to the US scientific agencies.

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