By Sougato Das, President and COO, LSN
Many in the life sciences research community were spooked when PubMed went down temporarily in March after the Trump administration cut $4 billion in “indirect costs” that supported medical research. More recently, an ominous message appeared on PubMed: “Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed…” Many who use PubMed but not other government websites were probably panicked by this, but a quick look at clinicaltrials.gov, NIH Reporter and even NIH’s main site reveals the same message, while different versions of this message appear on the websites of HHS, CMS, etc.
Still, various EU governments have been quietly preparing for a PubMed shutdown by ensuring they will have a PubMed-alternative just in case. Of course, let’s be real: while they may be able to serve the existing content in PubMed, they will not be able to suddenly support the thousands of additional abstracts and articles added each day, along with MeSH tagging, journal selection, XML/JSON feeds, and other critical functions PubMed provides.
While PubMed is critical to nearly every life science researcher, even those with access to Web of Science, Embase, etc., it is especially critical to early-stage life science companies and investors. For basic research, competitive intelligence, due diligence and more, PubMed is indispensable for those without access to paid literature databases. PubMed is also an important source for pipeline database providers that investors and pharma use to find assets and perform CI.
The US government, for decades, has supplied a critical and reliable literature resource for worldwide audiences, both professional and non-professional alike. With the addition of the first and best clinical trial registry in 2000, continued funding for this resource is paramount for global biomedical research.
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