After a decade of 6% growth from 1994-2004, medical research investment in the United States fell to an annual growth rate of just 0.8% from 2004 to 2012, according to a recent report in JAMA. Cuts in funding extended across the biomedical industry, the medical device industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

At NIH, investment in medical research fell from a 7.3% compounded annual growth rate to compounded annual reductions of 1.8% from 2004-2012. As NIH investment dropped, the proportion of research funded by industry rose from 46% in 1994 to 58% in 2012.

At the same time as the U.S. government and businesses reduced their funding of medical research, other nations increased theirs. Led by China, Asia nearly quadrupled research investment from $2.6 billion in 2004 to $9.7 billion in 2012. Europe and Canada both saw more than 4% increases in research funding from 2004 to 2011. As a result of these two trends, total U.S. research funding dropped from 57% of all global research funding to 44%.

U.S. companies cut funding for early-stage research in favor of late-stage clinical trials and other research.  

In an accompanying editorial, Institute of Medicine (IOM) President Victor Dzau, MD, and former IOM President Harvey Fineberg, MD, PhD, noted that this shift may reflect “the increasing costs, complexity and length of clinical trials but may also reflect a de-emphasis of early discovery efforts by the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.”

At the clinical trial and earlier stages, research funding fails to reflect the burden of disease in the country. HIV/AIDS and cancer receive disproportionate funding compared to depression, migraines and stroke, noted the researchers, and 27 diseases which account for 84% of U.S. deaths receive just 48% of NIH funding.

While the U.S. continues to lead the world in medical research  investment, Dzau and Fineberg asserted that the report demonstrates a need for more investment and new sources of funding, if the U.S. is to maintain its leadership in medical innovations. They noted that the drop in investment has led to a reduction in the global share of research patents held by U.S. researchers or companies from 73% in 1981 to 59% in 2011.

Despite the drop in investment in medical research, pharmaceutical companies continue to conduct many clinical trials and a number of trials are enrolling participants in this critically important aspect of medical research in Atlanta. Please contact gotoprotocol.com to learn more about local clinical trials that may benefit your patients.

Click here for May 2015 Gotoprotocol News Update.