December 28, 2015 – Who’s Buying

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Anchor lead: Should you be concerned about decreased government funding for medical and scientific studies? Elizabeth Tracey reports

More industry funded studies are taking place even while numbers of National Institutes of Health studies are declining, a Johns Hopkins study led by Stephan Ehrhardt has shown. Ehrhardt reveals the data.

Ehrhardt: We found that NIH funded trials have decreased by 25% over the last nine years whereas industry funded trials have increased by about 43% in the same time frame.  Clinical trials are the backbone of evidence-based healthcare and prevention.  This imbalance, the decrease of NIH funded trials and the increase of industry funded trials, that’s our concern.   :25

Ehrhardt says industry funded studies are not bad, they simply pursue scientific evidence through a lens that is focused on having a saleable drug or device at the study’s conclusion.  In contrast, NIH funded studies have the luxury of objectivity in assessing interventions.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.