Medical Research Favors Diseases of the Rich
The London’s Independent newspaper writes:
A report into malaria research funding found stark inequalities between the amounts of money spent on predominantly Western illnesses and diseases that kill millions every year in developing nations. The authors measured such inequalities by comparing how many years of productive life are lost to a disease and the amount of money spent combating them.
For instance:
Diabetes, (….) receives 1.6 per cent of the total money spent on medical research, even though as a fatal illness it only accounts for 1.1 per cent of all the productive years of life lost to disease. Malaria, on the other hand, is responsible for 3 per cent of all lost years. In other words, despite the fact that diabetes is three times less deadly than malaria, it gets six times more money in research and funding.
Interesting report!
Click here to view the full article on The Independent.