Learn More

You can learn more about the factors that are influencing the slow pace of medical research here.

• Myelin Repair Foundation: Where are the Cures?  A Summary.
• Margaret Anderson, Faster Cures:  “Institute View: R&D challenge.” Milken Institute Review. Q4 2010. pages 85-87.
• Arabella Advisors:  Issue Brief on “Investing in Innovative Medical Research” – 2010.
• Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: “Assessing Risk & Return: Personalized Medicine Development & New Innovation Paradigm”— October 2008.
• Atlantic Monthly: “No Refills” –July/August 2010
• New York Times: “Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s” – August 12, 2010
• The Economist: “Back to the Lab” — December 10, 2009.
• Science Translational Medicine: “Peer-to-Peer Sharing Spurs Scientific Innovation.” —December 2, 2009.
• Scott Johnson at BIL:PIL: A Bottom Up Approach to Accelerating Medical Research. — October 2009.
• Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal: Foundation’s research model in Saratoga aims to halve clinical trial time. — October 16, 2009.
• The New York Times: Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe. — June 27, 2009.
• Newsweek: From Bench to Bedside: Academia slows the search for cures. — June 15, 2009.
• The New York Times: Taking Science Personally. — November 10, 2008.
• Newsweek On Science: Where are the Cures? — November 1, 2008.
• Wall Street Journal: Big Pharma Faces Grim Prognosis. – December 6, 2007.
• BusinessWeek: Innovation on the Edge. — May 7, 2008.
• JAMA: “Central challenges facing the national clinical research enterprise.” — March 12, 2003.
• Science Business: The Promise, the Reality and the Future of Biotech (2006) Gary Pisano.
• Tomorrow’s Cures Today?: How to Reform the Health Research System (2000) Donald R. Forsdyke.

Check our facts!

• 1 in 3 Americans live with chronic and/or life-threatening diseases
  The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease in the United States
  http://www.fightchronicdisease.org/pdfs/ChronicDiseaseFactSheet.pdf
• The estimated impact of these diseases. $1.3 trillion per year and growing.
  R. DeVol, et al., An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease (Santa Monica, CA: Milken Institute, October 2007)
  www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/publications.taf?function=detail&ID=38801018&cat=ResRep
• More than $90 billion is spent on medical research and development every year
  http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/294/11/1333
• In 2008 only 21 new drugs were approved by the FDA. That number is no greater than it was 50 years ago.
  Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 8, 959-968 (December 2009) | doi:10.1038/nrd2961
  http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v8/n12/abs/nrd2961.html