The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has agreed to transfer part of its budget to the US Department of Defense to fund research into pandemic and biological threats, despite NIH leadership having previously said it wanted to move away from this type of work. The Department of Defense confirmed the deal, signed roughly a month earlier, on the Friday before a US holiday weekend. The arrangement is notable both for the stark disparity in resources between the two agencies and for funding projects the NIH's own leadership has explicitly said it no longer wishes to prioritise.

Under the ten-year agreement, money will move from the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — which has a $6.6 billion budget for 2026 — to the Pentagon, whose overall defence budget stands at roughly $1 trillion but is under strain from the ongoing conflict with Iran. The exact proportion of NIAID's funds to be diverted is unspecified, though reporting suggests the Pentagon sought up to a third of its relevant budget but was offered closer to 10%. Critics, including Senator Patty Murray, have suggested the deal may be an attempt to shift money to the Pentagon without congressional approval, and possibly part of a broader effort to move biosecurity research out of the NIH altogether.