- Email: [email protected]
What auctioning the human genome might tell us about research funding
THE LANCET
POLICY AND PEOPLE
What auctioning the human genome might tell us about research funding
A
proposal to create a Can$1-billion fund to help Canadian universities commercialise their medical discoveries was among a number of funding initiatives recommended by delegates from 14 nations attending an international symposium on supporting medical research in the coming millennium on Oct 4. Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund chairman Calvin Stiller argued that a national health science endowment equity fund could enable universities to match the private sector’s equity interest in fledgling research ventures. Universities could reinvest some of their profits in basic research, pay infrastructure costs within their faculties, or even channel some of the revenues to the Medical Research Council of Canada. His proposals also featured a $1·5billion, 10-year cash injection into the MRC’s base budget, and a recommendation that medical research be made eligible for tax incentives now used to promote research and development in the natural-resource sector. The latter include measures to lure high-risk capital through tax credits, tax deferral, and capitalgains exemptions. Stiller contended that the combined impact of the measures after a
decade would be the creation of a self-sustaining, multibillion dollar pool available for both basic research and new ventures. Basic research funding would effectively double, at which point the government could reduce its medical research outlays back to 1996 levels, he said. Although the proposals were presented at the behest of the MRC, president Henry Friesen said that they must be examined in greater detail and further developed by the research community before being recommended to government. But Friesen noted that Stiller’s proposals merit “very, very serious scrutiny” on the basis of the CMDF’s track record alone (the wildly successful venture capital corporation has amassed nearly $200 million since 1994—see Lancet 1994; 344: 1761). Other proposals advanced by the delegates to generate new sources of revenue for health services or population-based research included: adoption of a British-style levy on research agency budgets; a tax on tobacco products; a levy on pension
Australian doctors protest at “unfair” initiative
A
ustralian doctors are protesting at a recent budget initiative that reduces the number of doctors able to obtain Medicare “provider numbers”. In the previous system, a doctor who had graduated and completed a 1-year internship could set up practice as a general practitioner and provide healthcare services to the public rebatable by Medicare. This will no longer be possible. Now, rebatable service will be the exclusive domain of those undertaking or completing postgraduate training. The move, estimated to save the government up to half a billion dollars annually by the year 1999, excludes recent graduates from obtaining a provider number until they are enrolled in a postgraduate course. The government says that this will also help address the oversupply of doctors in metropolitan areas. This initiative is unfair says the Australian Medical Association,
1026
pointing out that the 1200 graduates across Australia per year will now be competing with 250 overseas-trained doctors for between 800 and 1000 general practitioners and specialist training positions. It claims that imposing this measure on young doctors, many of whom may have accrued significant debts to pay for their study, is unjust. AMA President, Keith Woollard, says that the new policy means it will take between 10 and 12 years to become an independent practitioner—6 years of medical school, 1 year as an intern and 3–5 years for compulsory postgraduate training. This, the AMA argues, also discriminates against female practitioners who, having completed years of study, may wish to consider family-friendly options, such as general-practitioner work, without the immediate burden of postgraduate study.
funds or health-insurance premiums; and the extension of monopoly rights on intellectual property. With governments around the world facing fiscal constraints, University of California at Berkeley economist Paul Romer argued that nations must increasingly turn to extended patent protection, rather than taxes and subsidies, as the preferred option to increase research funding. To aid in determining the best mix of financing, Romer proposed an auction be held for a randomly selected portion of human genome and the results compared with those of a portion sequenced through public financing. “The difference in the rate of development of new therapies between the privately owned and the public regions, and the differences in the total cost of developing these therapies, could give us valuable information about the relative costs and social benefits of different financing mechanisms.” Wayne Kondro
News in brief Albumin recall A US company (Centeon, Pennsylvania) is recalling ten lots of its product, Albuminar-25. The recall came on Oct 3 after two patients, who received the product at different hospitals, developed Enterobacter cloacae septicaemia. Albuminar-25 has not been specifically linked to the infections but the US Food and Drug Administration and Centeon are continuing to investigate. UK hepatitis C UK patients with haemophilia who contracted hepatitis C through contaminated blood products have been refused financial compensation by the Department of Health. The Health Minister stated that they had received the best treatment at the time. Members of all parliamentary parties have signed an Early Day Motion supporting financial help for haemophiliacs infected with hepatitis C.
Kathy Ettershank
Vol 348 • October 12, 1996
POLICY AND PEOPLE
What auctioning the human genome might tell us about research funding
A
proposal to create a Can$1-billion fund to help Canadian universities commercialise their medical discoveries was among a number of funding initiatives recommended by delegates from 14 nations attending an international symposium on supporting medical research in the coming millennium on Oct 4. Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund chairman Calvin Stiller argued that a national health science endowment equity fund could enable universities to match the private sector’s equity interest in fledgling research ventures. Universities could reinvest some of their profits in basic research, pay infrastructure costs within their faculties, or even channel some of the revenues to the Medical Research Council of Canada. His proposals also featured a $1·5billion, 10-year cash injection into the MRC’s base budget, and a recommendation that medical research be made eligible for tax incentives now used to promote research and development in the natural-resource sector. The latter include measures to lure high-risk capital through tax credits, tax deferral, and capitalgains exemptions. Stiller contended that the combined impact of the measures after a
decade would be the creation of a self-sustaining, multibillion dollar pool available for both basic research and new ventures. Basic research funding would effectively double, at which point the government could reduce its medical research outlays back to 1996 levels, he said. Although the proposals were presented at the behest of the MRC, president Henry Friesen said that they must be examined in greater detail and further developed by the research community before being recommended to government. But Friesen noted that Stiller’s proposals merit “very, very serious scrutiny” on the basis of the CMDF’s track record alone (the wildly successful venture capital corporation has amassed nearly $200 million since 1994—see Lancet 1994; 344: 1761). Other proposals advanced by the delegates to generate new sources of revenue for health services or population-based research included: adoption of a British-style levy on research agency budgets; a tax on tobacco products; a levy on pension
Australian doctors protest at “unfair” initiative
A
ustralian doctors are protesting at a recent budget initiative that reduces the number of doctors able to obtain Medicare “provider numbers”. In the previous system, a doctor who had graduated and completed a 1-year internship could set up practice as a general practitioner and provide healthcare services to the public rebatable by Medicare. This will no longer be possible. Now, rebatable service will be the exclusive domain of those undertaking or completing postgraduate training. The move, estimated to save the government up to half a billion dollars annually by the year 1999, excludes recent graduates from obtaining a provider number until they are enrolled in a postgraduate course. The government says that this will also help address the oversupply of doctors in metropolitan areas. This initiative is unfair says the Australian Medical Association,
1026
pointing out that the 1200 graduates across Australia per year will now be competing with 250 overseas-trained doctors for between 800 and 1000 general practitioners and specialist training positions. It claims that imposing this measure on young doctors, many of whom may have accrued significant debts to pay for their study, is unjust. AMA President, Keith Woollard, says that the new policy means it will take between 10 and 12 years to become an independent practitioner—6 years of medical school, 1 year as an intern and 3–5 years for compulsory postgraduate training. This, the AMA argues, also discriminates against female practitioners who, having completed years of study, may wish to consider family-friendly options, such as general-practitioner work, without the immediate burden of postgraduate study.
funds or health-insurance premiums; and the extension of monopoly rights on intellectual property. With governments around the world facing fiscal constraints, University of California at Berkeley economist Paul Romer argued that nations must increasingly turn to extended patent protection, rather than taxes and subsidies, as the preferred option to increase research funding. To aid in determining the best mix of financing, Romer proposed an auction be held for a randomly selected portion of human genome and the results compared with those of a portion sequenced through public financing. “The difference in the rate of development of new therapies between the privately owned and the public regions, and the differences in the total cost of developing these therapies, could give us valuable information about the relative costs and social benefits of different financing mechanisms.” Wayne Kondro
News in brief Albumin recall A US company (Centeon, Pennsylvania) is recalling ten lots of its product, Albuminar-25. The recall came on Oct 3 after two patients, who received the product at different hospitals, developed Enterobacter cloacae septicaemia. Albuminar-25 has not been specifically linked to the infections but the US Food and Drug Administration and Centeon are continuing to investigate. UK hepatitis C UK patients with haemophilia who contracted hepatitis C through contaminated blood products have been refused financial compensation by the Department of Health. The Health Minister stated that they had received the best treatment at the time. Members of all parliamentary parties have signed an Early Day Motion supporting financial help for haemophiliacs infected with hepatitis C.
Kathy Ettershank
Vol 348 • October 12, 1996