Susie Fitzhugh
Dr. Fred Appelbaum, director of the Clinical Research Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington. He has also served as the executive director of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance since its formation in 1998.
Seattle scientists are worried that lives and jobs will be lost if federal budget cuts to cancer and health care research aren?t reversed.
The issue brought together a number of experts Tuesday at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to meet with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), for a discussion on sequestration cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The NIH provides about $300 million a year to The Hutch in research grants. Institute leadership is anticipating losing 5 percent of that funding, amounting to a $15 million cut.
?We?re going to have some major cuts,? said Dr. Fred Appelbaum, director of the clinical research division at the Hutch. ?There?s no question. We will have layoffs and other cost savings measure that will painful.?
The Hutch is working on its annual budget process right now, and details of where cuts will happen won?t be available for a few weeks.
While the grants subject to cuts are awarded individually to projects and research leaders, Appelbaum said cuts from the top are likely as the institution prepares for the financial hit.
In the meantime, researchers have been ?squirreling away? funds where they can to ensure current projects can afford to keep going, he said.
Murray said she would bring the message of researchers back to Congress, and that she objected to the cuts.
?I am adamant that sequestration is the wrong cuts, wrong time,? she said.
Still, Appelbaum wasn?t confident that Congress would reverse the cuts in time.
?I?m personally very pessimistic,? he said. ?I have to be honest, I have not seen (positive) signs or messages from Congress.?
Valerie Bauman covers nonprofits and health care for the Puget Sound Business Journal.
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