Why isn’t funding by private companies enough, as some critics of government funding have asserted?
That's a frequently asked question: “if stem cell research holds so much promise, then why is the private sector not funding it and taking advantage of it?” The private funder first needs to anticipate a potential return on the investment in two to five years. In our country, we develop therapies from basic research already funded and conducted with public sector funds. The NIH funds 80% of basic biomedical research.
As a field develops slowly, organically, over many many years, sometimes over a generation or more, at some point new technology and new ideas will develop to the point where private funders come in and cherry pick the best ideas developed through basic research. They then develop a potential treatment into the FDA approvable product that we as medical consumers buy off the shelf or go to the hospital to receive.
ESCR began in 1998 - 8 years ago. It normally takes a long time from discovery to treatment, but we are really poking along here. The way federal policy is written, scientists can lose funding as the result of an audit if any federal funding is used for research with unapproved ESC lines. Stem cell researchers have to physically separate the private and public funded research. Scientists don’t want to deal with that. Young scientists become discouraged as they see political and funding instability, and hesitate to devote their careers to this research. But I think that tide is changing.
http://grassrootsconnection.com/vip_shanesmith.htm