Llewellyn King: "Research Funding: Scientists Fear as the Sick Despair"

[me/cfs 27931]

Hadn't seen this posted yet. Llewellyn King covering paltry ME/CFS research funding again on the White House Chronicle.

http://whchronicle.com/cuts-threate...disease-once-called-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

Research Funding: Scientists Fear as the Sick Despair

When you are sick, very sick, you wait for medicine to work its magic. But if the disease is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), you have to wait for the medicine to be invented.

The bad news is that so little funding is going into solving the ME problem, commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, that those sick today may be sick for the rest of their lives. They are living a life that is a nearly intolerable to themselves and a massive burden to their loved ones, spouses, parents and caregivers.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)— the principal researcher into ME and dozens of other perplexing diseases — has historically given ME a pittance. In the last three years funding has been held to $5 million a year, although the Obama administration had promised more.

To put this in perspective, the trade association of the pharmaceutical industry calculates that it costs $1.2 billion dollars to bring a new drug to market. Sadly that industry has not shown interest in ME, so the research is mostly funded by NIH and private groups and individuals.

The news that the Trump administration is thinking of cutting the total NIH budget by $5 billion has caused a palpable anxiety to grip the ME community. The disease is cruel enough, does it need to be compounded by the government?

In the sick rooms of the 1 million or so ME sufferers, despondency has reached new depths. You will not be cured if no one cares enough to look for a cure. Can you double down on despair?

 

[trishrhymes]

Excellent article. It was also in Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...sease-once-called_us_59033d23e4b03b105b44b796

 

[Snow Leopard]

Cutting the NIH funding is an excellent way to damage the momentum and major competitive advantage that the USA has over other countries...

 

[RogerBlack]

Cutting the NIH funding is an excellent way to damage the momentum and major competitive advantage that the USA has over other countries...

Indeed.
Even a 'cheap' lifestyle drug at say $2K for the mildly afflicted to fix them, for a million people is a couple of billion dollars return.
Add in the reduced spending on healthcare and improved tax revenue from this group, and it's rather a lot more.

 

[HowToEscape?]

There won't be a $5 million cut, that's just Donald style of starting with something outrageous.
A 100% cut to NCCIH would be a great thing though. There's already been about 20 times (that's 2000%) as much spent on research attempting to legitimize bull s--t as has been spent on us.