Science, not politics, must guide lifesaving medical research

 By Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr.

For more than three decades, my work has been rooted in West Baltimore, where the gap between scientific progress and community benefit is not theoretical; it is something families experience every day.

That is why a recent announcement about a new treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer demanded my attention. New clinical data shows that daraxonrasib doubled survival rates for patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer, reducing the risk of death by 60 percent. For a disease that has long resisted treatment, this is not incremental progress—it is a turning point.

This breakthrough did not happen by accident. It is the direct result of sustained, peer-reviewed scientific investment — exactly the kind of research championed by institutions like Johns Hopkins, which has served as an anchor of innovation and healing for generations in our city. 

Maryland, with its extraordinary concentration of public and private research assets, has a particular stake in protecting that legacy.

That is why I am alarmed by a proposed federal rule that would give political appointees veto power over health research grants. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin has warned that this change would stifle healthcare innovation for generations. He is right. The peer-review system that produced daraxonrasib works precisely because science — not politics — guides the decisions.

Undermining that system, whether through politicized grant oversight or pricing policies like most favored nation pricing and IRA expansion, puts the next breakthrough at risk before it ever reaches a patient — including those in communities that have historically been the last to benefit and the first to lose.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.

The post Science, not politics, must guide lifesaving medical research appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.