A man who was a guest of honor at President Trump's congressional address last month on Tuesday criticized Trump's proposed budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), saying that grant funding from the institute plays a "crucial role" in medical research.

John Crowley and his 20-year-old daughter Megan Crowley, who suffers from Pompe disease, were invited to the speech, which coincided with Rare Disease Day. John Crowley spent years as a biotech entrepreneur and founded a company to conduct research and help with his daughter's rare genetic disease.

In an interview with Axios, Crowley said he was grateful for the invite to the speech but spoke out about the importance of funding to the NIH and healthcare costs.

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"For me as an entrepreneur, it's all about inventions and healing, and I think NIH plays a crucial role. It's part of this virtuous circle that is necessary to advance medicines to patients, which also includes the grants that NIH provides to our academic institutions," Crowley told Axios.

"Our university research system is the core for basic science and basic translational research and is the basis for a lot of the good ideas that come into a company like ours."

He also said NIH funding was important to help with research and the creation of new drugs.

"I really believe that patient-centered medicine and patient choices are going to be key to getting us to access that's more affordable," Crowley said.

"We could say right now: 'No new drugs.' Then all current drugs would go generic and cost less, but I don't think that's acceptable. And if you have a kid with a rare disease or a parent with Alzheimer's it's obviously not acceptable. So if we don't invest massively in this effort, which includes NIH funding, it's going to lead to enormous amounts of human suffering."

Trump's proposed federal budget cuts nearly $6 billion from the NIH, despite his promises on the campaign trail that his administration would work to cure diseases.

The document also includes eliminating the Fogarty International Center, which spends $69 million a year to encourage health research institutes in different countries and the U.S. to work together.