Trump slashed funding for universities that helped create these vital drugs

For most people, medicines are a bottle of pills on a shelf - made by drug companies, stocked by pharmacies, prescribed by doctors. But drugs that people take for serious illnesses - to prevent HIV, shrink tumors and treat seizures - have years-long backstories that often trace to basic science experiments in university laboratories.

That foundation is now under threat. The Trump administration has abruptly frozen billions inresearch grants to universities it accuses of antisemitism or bias unrelated to the research.Some research is being terminated midstream and further funding cuts loom, jeopardizing the development of new medications that could prove equally lifesaving or life-changing.

Pharmaceutical companies are essential to developing new drugs, but the early chapters of many medi