Our favorite anti-open source article, "Winning the Linux Wars", suggested that Microsoft partners should be "Playing the R&D card" by emphasizing that "Microsoft invests north of $6 billion a year on R&D. There is nobody in the Linux world that does that." Well, Merck (MRK) invests about $4 billion a year in R&D. Bristol-Meyers (BMY) $669 million. Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) $2.7 billion. Pfizer (PFE) $1.8 billion. Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) a whopping $10.2 billion, or nearly half of its $20.5 billion in revenues. Together, that's about $19.5 billion a year in research and development. Apparently, though, that's not enough. This Friday (January 20, 2006), The Wall Street Journal's "Science Journal" ran article entitled "In Switch, Scientists Share Data to Develop useful Drug Therapies" [PS: blogged here 1/2/06] which pointed out that there is a "crisis in 'translational science,' or turning basic discoveries into therapies," and that only twenty new drugs were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2005. One billion a drug, approximately. More importantly, the article points out some interesting trends: [1] The pace of basic biomedical research is outstripping the pace of translational research. In other words, we're learning about genetics and biology faster than we're able to make drugs based on that knowledge. [2] As a result, foundation grants have not produced concrete results of cures for illnesses. [3] In response, the foundations are now shifting funds from basic research into therapies, taking over a role once left to industry....What is the unique collaboration? Sharing knowledge. The foundation which sponsored the research is apparently requiring the scientists it funds "share results in real time," rather than keep their discoveries proprietary. As a result, it has made the scientists feel more accountable for their work and therefore become more engaged in curing diseases.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/14/2006 12:59:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
