The catch, of course, is that none of the big US pharmaceuticals are willing to do the expensive clinical studies/trials so we can *find out*. I understand the economic reality underlying this, but still...*grumble*
And this is why leaving R&D purely in the hand of private corporations is a losing game. It galls me why so many governments are so reluctant to fund research. It's not as if they wouldn't have a mechanism for marketing any viable results, both internally and/or internationally via a government-owned business. Or, why they don't rejig any grant-allocation procedures and stop reducing grants, so that private enterprises can get funding that way. The government could even evolve some kind of licensing fee for X years to claw back the grant if any results are commercially marketed.
It reminds me a lot of the early days of AIDS research, were scientists were delayed for years, simply because the government wouldn't allocate funds. And then there were the shenanigans where groups like the NIH were saying, "Honest, we really really have enough money", because the politics of the situation meant that they had to prop up the party-line of the incumbent government, while behind the scenes they were constantly begging for more funds. I suppose I've just outlined a big reason for certain governments not to fund R&D, if they're going to be partisan and deny research based on bizarre religious beliefs and political point-scoring.
Still, since "everyone" is acknowledged to be at risk of cancer, I'd be surprised if some government funding weren't coughed up. How speedy that process would be is another matter. And whether or not it'd be sufficient for a company that wasn't part of Big Pharma and that didn't have millions to plough into such research at the drop of a hat.
Amazing the sparks of imagination (backed up then by years of hard research) that lead some researchers to a new way of looking at the problem. It reminds me of the researcher who first declared that most ulcers might be caused by a bacterium. He was laughed off the field, so to speak. Determined to prove that he was right, he continued his quest. Today, no one disputes his findings, and the treatment of choice for ulcers is a combination of antibiotics and other drugs to kill H-pylori, the bacterium that causes 99% of ulcers.
Here's to hoping that these researchers have had such a leap to the true cause of primary and secondary cancers! I'd love to live in a world where current oncology treatments could be relegated to the same shelf as trepanning...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-01-25 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 03:02 am (UTC)It reminds me a lot of the early days of AIDS research, were scientists were delayed for years, simply because the government wouldn't allocate funds. And then there were the shenanigans where groups like the NIH were saying, "Honest, we really really have enough money", because the politics of the situation meant that they had to prop up the party-line of the incumbent government, while behind the scenes they were constantly begging for more funds. I suppose I've just outlined a big reason for certain governments not to fund R&D, if they're going to be partisan and deny research based on bizarre religious beliefs and political point-scoring.
Still, since "everyone" is acknowledged to be at risk of cancer, I'd be surprised if some government funding weren't coughed up. How speedy that process would be is another matter. And whether or not it'd be sufficient for a company that wasn't part of Big Pharma and that didn't have millions to plough into such research at the drop of a hat.
< /rant>
no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-27 05:23 am (UTC)It would, indeed, be so wonderful, if true.
Amazing the sparks of imagination (backed up then by years of hard research) that lead some researchers to a new way of looking at the problem. It reminds me of the researcher who first declared that most ulcers might be caused by a bacterium. He was laughed off the field, so to speak. Determined to prove that he was right, he continued his quest. Today, no one disputes his findings, and the treatment of choice for ulcers is a combination of antibiotics and other drugs to kill H-pylori, the bacterium that causes 99% of ulcers.
Here's to hoping that these researchers have had such a leap to the true cause of primary and secondary cancers! I'd love to live in a world where current oncology treatments could be relegated to the same shelf as trepanning...