Cancer Institutes Are Increasingly Asking Big Pharma For Funding
Budget cuts and other state imposed austerity measures have led to a lack of funding for many cancer research institutes. These institutes are increasingly turning to the pharmaceutical industry to get the funding that they need in order to continue their research. As the federal funds shrink, institutes must look elsewhere for funding or face cutbacks or even closure. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston now gets 25 percent of its funding from pharmaceutical companies, whereas ten years ago that number was 10 percent. Industry experts believe that Dana-Farber is indicative of a trend in cancer research, which is increasingly funded by pharmaceutical companies. Some scientists believe that more funding from drug companies means less autonomy in their research.
Dr. Barrett Rollins of Dana-Farber believes that pharmaceutical companies expect solutions quickly. “I worry that the type of research is subtly shifting. Government is really the only entity that can support unfettered research because it recognizes that there may be a great time lag between a discovery and its application that benefits society. Shareholders would not want a company to think that way,” said Rollins. “Company-sponsored research is really about benefitting a company. There is a high expectation of a practical outcome over a short timeline.”
Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, believes that the federal government needs to provide greater support for medical research. “The success stories that have gotten us some pretty major advances in cancer have really depended upon federally funded basic science research, which is not directly connected to a product and therefore less likely for industry to support,” said Collins. “If you cut the foundation away, which is the basic science discovery, what exactly will be there years from now in therapeutics and diagnostics?”