The Scientist – Opinion: The “Money Culture” in Academic Biomedical Research
[CanLyme Note: This for profit money drive takes medical research away from cure to ‘a drug for every symptom’. In Canada, relative to Lyme disease, the private Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease of Canada (AMMI), is an extension of the ‘do not cure’ medical money machine. They offer opinion and poorly designed research to support the ‘do not treat the disease, drug the symptoms’ highly profitable model and, their influence is entrenched at every level of medical leadership in Canadian university medical schools and within the Public Health Agency of Canada. Canada is a dangerous place for the chronically ill despite the image they sell to the world. Canada prefers to ‘Farm sickness to Pharm sickness’ at the beckoning of AMMI’s partners… the private Infectious Disease Society of America and the non-transparent highly profit motivated United States Center for Disease Control, both of which are a huge part of the global medical for profit money machine.]
A drive for revenue is damaging basic science.
Mar 29, 2019
DAVID RUBENSON
Recent New York Times’s articles focused on Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have drawn attention to conflicts when academic biomedical researchers consult for pharmaceutical companies. Such conflicts are only one symptom of an expanding “money culture,” where revenue is valued more than research and basic science is diminished. This will delay the advances needed for future clinical breakthroughs.
Academic biomedical research occurs largely at university medical schools and a few free-standing centers. Research spans clinical studies to laboratory investigations of fundamental disease processes. Clinical researchers deliver patient care at organizationally separate academic hospitals.
These institutes face significant financial pressures. They do not receive a university operating budget and must pay their own way. Some even pay a form of “rent” to parent universities. Tenure is infrequent and rarely covers a full salary. From deans to junior faculty, in times flush or lean, there is funding anxiety.
The anxiety diminishes basic science.
Parallel article: Neglected Tropical Diseases [NTDs]
Tropical diseases like Chagas affect one billion people. Why don’t we have better drugs? Nickerson J, Opinions, Healthy Debate 19-04-18: https://healthydebate.ca/opinions/treatment-for-chagas