Cato Podcast NIH's Lost Mission
Dec 2, 2025
John Early, a Cato adjunct scholar specializing in federal spending, and Terence Kealey, a clinical biochemistry professor and science policy advocate, delve into the National Institutes of Health's misalignment with its health mission. They argue that the shift from mission-led funding to basic science has hindered health improvements and crowded out private research innovation. Key issues discussed include inefficiencies in grant prioritization, the detrimental focus on underfunded diseases, and the need for reform towards measurable health outcomes.
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NIH Overlooks Effective Obesity Drugs
- Obesity research at NIH focused on social causes while ignoring GLP-1 drugs that reduced obesity in practice.
- Terence notes GLP-1 analogs emerged from the private sector and are absent from NIH materials.
Federal Funding Creates A Research Monopoly
- Federal funding concentrates at top institutions, creating a monopolistic research ecosystem.
- That monopoly limits diversity of hypotheses and entrenches orthodoxies, harming scientific progress.
Monopoly Suppressed Nutrition Alternatives
- For decades NIH-backed nutrition orthodoxy (fat is bad) suppressed alternative views.
- Dissenting scientists were funded by industry and dismissed as biased, says Terence Kealey.