Fostering a Team Approach to Drug Cures

[charityfundraiser]

Helping New Drugs Out of Researchs Valley of Death
A broken system lets promising research on new drugs languish, but a group devoted to fighting MS is working to fix it.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/helping-new-drugs-out-of-academias-valley-of-death/

Fostering a Team Approach to Drug Cures
A group's method for researching a cure for multiple sclerosis could be a model for others fighting diseases.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/fostering-a-team-approach-to-drug-cures/

Myelin Repair Foundation
http://www.myelinrepair.org/

 

[Enid]

Thanks for interestnig post charityfundraiser - MS suspected in my case (but ruled out) - suspected damage to the myelin sheath involvement definately in for the neurological problems. Collaborations must be good for us all.

 

[Sasha]

Fascinating stuff, thanks for posting it. This collaborative stuff is definitely best for patients - the challenge is to set up structures within science so that people aren't punished in their careers for immediately sharing data. The time gap from data collection to publication is often at least six months and for a paper that isn't accepted by the first choice journal, possibly years. Researchers often adopt a strategy of submitting papers to the most prestigious journals first, even if it's a long shot, because they'll get grants and promotion if they publish there. But such journals have something like 95% rejection rates so researchers have to submit to several journals before their work comes out. All very much not in the interest of patients.