Federal funding for medical research has dropped by roughly $1 billion this year, raising alarm among universities, medical centers and lawmakers who warn the shortfall could slow progress in cancer,

For fiscal year 2023, NIH spent more than $35 billion in about 50,000 grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 medical schools, universities and other research institutions, the agency said, with about $9 billion of that going to indirect costs..

In a strongly worded letter, US Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday demanded clarity from the heads of the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation on the funding status of the two agencies,