The United States, once a giant in biomedical research and development spending, loses much of its heft, as its spending has steadily decreased by a rate of $12 billion between 2007 and 2012. From a share of 51 percent of the world's spending in biomedical research, it now holds only a 45 percent share. In the same time period, biomedical research spending by China and Japan rose by more than 1 percent of the world's total biomedical research funding.
A research led by Dr. Reshma Jagsi, associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan Health System, reveals that spending for U.S. research and development decreased from $131 billion to $119 billion from 2007 to 2012.
Within the same time period, China's spending increased by $6.4 billion and Japan's by $9 billion. This meant that Asia's overall spending on biomedical research and development grew from 18 percent to 24 percent. Europe's, on the other hand, held steady at 29 percent.
The study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, outlined the causes of the decline in spending for U.S. biomedical research. The causes include reductions in funding from the National Institutes of Health and reduced investments from the industry. Support for clinical trials testing potential new therapies has not been strong in recent years. Support from the public sector, however, was not a factor in this phenomenon.
"The United States has long been a world leader in driving research and development in the biomedical science. It's important to maintain that leadership role because biomedical research has a number of long term downstream economic benefits, especially around job creation," Jagsi said.
The author of the study, Justin Chakma, a venture capital investor with Thomas, McNerney & Partners, said, "We were surprised the impact of industry funding was that dramatic, but it's key to note that government funding is equally important to maintain or grow. Research funded through the National Institutes of Health helps scientists understand how diseases work -- this will happen slower as National Institute of Health funding continues to be cut."
