I often hear people say things like “we need more government research in X disease”. It’s times like this I want to bury my face in my hands or bang it on a wall a couple of times, because statements like this display a certain naivete which – while cute – isn’t particularly helpful in getting the job done. It’s just not how things work. Of course the government can have a significant role to play in advancing disease-specific research, but the greatest leaps forward are usually through a public-private partnership. So, I thought… why not provide a relatively short summary of just what goes into researching a cure… especially with the movie Extraordinary Measures coming out in only a few weeks? After all, this film deals with a desperate dad trying to save his children’s lives, and is not an uncommon story within the biotechnology community at all.

Step one – Fund research: This is likely the step that most people are thinking of when they say “we need more government research”. The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) 50,000 competitive grants support more than 325,000 researchers at over 3,000 universities medical schools and research institutions across the United States. Without progressive increases in NIH funding, the number of researchers will inevitably decrease as the funding dries up. But that is only the first step.

Step two – Protect patents: Each biologic drug (for example) takes approximately $1.2 billion and 12-15 years in development before it reaches the approval stage. Without strong patent protection, there is little incentive for private research institutions to spur innovation and breakthrough treatments.

Step three – Invest in start-ups: Of all the FDA-approved biotech therapies on the market through 2005, about one-third were from companies receiving SBIR funding (aka: small businesses or start-ups). Counterproductive tax policies and limiting SBIR funding to research start-ups like these can literally rip the rug out from under promising therapies.

Step four – Strengthen the FDA: The FDA regulates products worth nearly $1.5 trillion annually, but total FDA appropriations don’t even cover operating costs. By fully funding the FDA, the agency will be able to manage (in a timely fashion) the growing volume of breakthrough therapies that have to be fully vetted before going to market… otherwise, it will act as an unnecessary bottleneck in getting desperately needed treatments to people.

Step five – Fair pricing: More than 400 biotech drugs are in clinical trials for 200+ diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, AIDS and many others. Government-imposed pricing mandates can eviscerate the necessary early-stage investment, leaving desperate patients with nowhere to turn.

Step six – Assure safety: Patients must be helped to understand that there are risks as well as benefits to any given treatment. No treatment is 100% effective, and unrealistic expectations of a treatment’s safety will lead to lawsuits and limit access to needed medications. However, enhancing safety through high-tech post-market surveillance can enhance safety dramatically. It’s really all about having a common sense approach to medicine and accepting a certain level of personal responsibility when undergoing treatment.

All of these are crucial components to finding effective treatments, so I look forward to seeing how this will be portrayed in Extraordinary Measures. In short, finding cures is much more complicated than many people realize, and the people involved in it are taking heroic risks with their careers and sanity. A simplistic demand for “more government research” into a disease doesn’t accomplish much. Providing a competitive environment for researchers to take the necessary risks does.

What do you think? Is there anything missing from this list?

While we on this side of the pond obsess with Tiger Woods and his multiple infidelities, a team of scientists are gathering in India to discuss how to feed our growing world. By 2050, our planet’s farms will need to feed nine billion people… effectively, we need to double world food productivity using less land and water and fewer soil nutrients. And the scientists are breaking out of their usual non-confrontational stances, speaking up for modern agricultural techniques (and the billions who rely on this technology for access to cheap foodstuffs).

For one, Cornell University Professor Ronald Herring piped in with this: “While recombinant DNA technology has been widely accepted for pharmaceutical products, despite the high risks involved, the same technology has run into opposition in its application in food crops though there is no known risk.”

That’s a pretty powerful statement. It’s even more powerful when you pair that with Biologistics International’s Shanthu Shantaram, who alleged that the campaign unleashed by the anti-GM lobby was based on misinformation, disinformation and outright falsehood. Based on some of what we’ve seen bandied around, this doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to us. After all, Jerry Bruckheimer seems like he’s already on a one-man mission to stop modern science from using biotech crops to feed our world.

What do you think? Is there an “anti-GM lobby”? Can we ascribe all the misinformation and bunk science as having been crafted by groups with dubious scientific credentials? Let us know what you think!

On this Veterans’ Day, I wanted to take a break and poke fun at one of the most persistent conspiracy theories out there – the Philadelphia Experiment. I’m not sure why our enlisted men and women attract some of the wildest conspiracy theories out there, but they do. These are likely the same conspiracy theorists who insist that biotech crops will grow limbs, take over the planet and enslave the human race somehow. But I digress… let’s take a look at the theory, and why it’s utter nonsense.

According to urban legend, in 1943, the Navy conducted an experiment on the USS Eldridge rendering it not only invisible, but launching it back in time and transporting it 200 miles to boot. My… that is a fascinating story, but let’s look at just a few of the holes in this story.

Unified Field Theory: According to the conspiracy theorists, the Navy used the Unified Field Theory to render the ship invisible. Unfortunately for the theorists, there is no Unified Field Theory. Einstein was never able to figure this puzzle out, and despite many scientists losing their hair over the theory since, no one has ever come close to tackling it.

No progress: If this super-secret Unified Field Theory project had worked, why were there no follow-up projects based on it? Why would DARPA have invested the money into their metamaterials project if it were just recreating the wheel, in effect? That makes no sense.

Eyewitness Accounts: No one serving on the USS Eldridge has ever corroborated the story. The only person who claimed to have seen this was a “Carlos Allende” who sent a cryptic letter to a UFO conspiracy theorist, without any follow-up. Even when the serving members from the USS Eldridge reunited in 1999 for a ceremony, they readily dismissed the claims as nonsense.

Lack of evidence: According to the story, not only did the ship disappear, but many soldiers were somehow welded to the bulkheads in the process. The USS Eldridge was in constant service during WWII, transporting goods and soldiers to Europe. Bodies sticking out of bulkheads would have been noticed, I’m guessing… not to mention the necessary repair time that would be needed to “cover up” this phenomenon.

In other words, sometimes it doesn’t take a scientist to debunk wild theories… just common sense.

Once again, thank you to all the military servicemen out there for your contribution to our country’s security. To read more on what science is doing today to make our soldiers safer, check this post out at our sister site.