The crisis in "translational science," or turning basic discoveries into therapies, has been brewing for years, but it hit a depressing nadir in 2005, when just 20 new drugs won approval from the Food and Drug Administration,' Sharon Begley writes in the Wall Street Journal. Concerned researchers and foundations are pushing for more sharing of data between basic scientists and clinical investigators, and Stanford is launching a program to train doctoral students in bench-to-bedside research.(image placeholder)
Is it any surprise that companies are not investing in medicine? The result is that you typically get sued when your product carries a risk, your product gets pulled because of the incessant blathering of wackjobs or your patents stolen by foreign governments.
Why would a company invest hundreds of millions of dollars on drug research when it is all but certain that they won’t receive a profit on their investment? The more that government ratchets down on regulation and the more liberals push for ignoring patent rights the less advancements we are going to get in medicine.
If this is the state we are in now, how much worse will it be when companies are precluded from making a profit under a social healthcare system? I shudder to think.
HatTip: SlashDot
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