The Assembly Line to Nowhere

April 18, 2006

Setting aside the distortions and half-truths that appear to be advanced all too often by advocates of embryonic stem cell research, The Boston Globe column by Christopher Thomas Scott and Jennifer McCormick presents and interesting view of what they call the seven step assembly line of the “biomedical ‘’discovery machine’” :

1.) An academic scientist designs an experiment to answer an important question.
2.) The scientist applies to the government to fund the research.
3.) The money pays for students and fellows who conduct the research.
4.) The results are published in journals, which advance the field.
5.) An invention may result. This may lead to a patent, which then is licensed to a start-up company.
6.) With a monopoly granted by the patent, the company attracts venture capital. If it is successful, the company grows.
7.) Years later, the discovery becomes a therapy for patients.

Most taxpayers support biomedical research because of #7 – it leads to therapies for patients. But if the goal is to find cures, then the “assembly line” should be approached from the opposite direction. Funding of “important questions” should be based on what is most likely to result in ethically-derived therapies rather than on whether it can attract funding to pay for “students and fellows.” Basic research is, of course, important and occasionally does lead to new therapies. But the public should be fully informed that step #5 contains a very big qualifier before they are asked to support research that is not only morally problematic but likely to lead nowhere.