Basic Scientific Research is Vital for Biomedical Innovation

By Samantha McGrail

February 20, 2020 - Basic scientific research is critical for biomedical innovation, but the American public must provide researchers and scientists with the appropriate resources for innovation or the next generation will suffer, according to the president of Brigham Health and its Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, who is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, recently stated in a Detroit News reports that she has witnessed scientists develop hundreds of lifesaving medicines and researchers cure hepatitis C and tackle terminal illnesses in patients using biologic therapies.

American firms must be protected in order for them to successfully create lifesaving treatments.

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Lately, Nabel believes that our innovation ecosystem is under assault. If scientists aren’t given the necessary resources to enable continued innovation and discovery, the next generation will suffer.

Nabel also openly voiced that more often than not, it’s small, venture-backed biomedical companies that collaborate with top medical centers who turn promising insights into treatments.

“These firms translate basic research into applied science by identifying promising drug compounds and shepherding them through the years of preclinical testing, human trials, and regulatory hurdles,” she emphasized. “These companies often partner with bigger firms once success is in sight.”

Drug development is usually risky and expensive due to the high failure rate.

Between 1998 and 2014, 177 potential lung cancer drugs entered into clinical trials, but only ten were approved. During this same time, 96 potential melanoma drugs failed and only seven succeeded.

Early-stage research firms accept these risks because they understood that revenue from one successful drug will pay for every failure prior and still come up with a return, Nabel said. But innovation ecosystems are being threatened.

Many lawmakers look to import foreign price controls while others want to see price controls in Medicare. And some would support the federal government in setting prices on any medicine whose origin is government-funded research.

Nabel’s concern is that these policy changes could take away the financial incentives that allow the opportunity for scientists to explore new treatment options.

“Americans need to understand that government labs don’t develop drugs. Nor should we want them to. Congress sets the NIH’s budget and instructs the agency on how to spend that money. Tasking the NIH with drug discovery would politicize the research process. It would enable a handful of government officials to decide which experimental treatments get funding and which ones die in the lab,” Nabel concluded.

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Basic Scientific Research is Vital for Biomedical Innovation

As scientists continue to develop lifesaving medicine, we must continue to provide them with scientific resources required for biomedical innovation and discovery.

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