Excuse me for butting in on a post again. I know you don't mind, but just like to say excuse me anyway

Australia does have some of the expertize. The thing is that money is not being spent in the right places. Medical Research appears to me to be on it's own virtually and having to almost fund itself here. For this reason our scientists sell out to overseas interests including pharmaceutical companies. That's what happened with the whole Gardasil debarcle e.g..

I do of course, understand your point... it might appear like we're running a cottage industry as well, but I'm tired of seeing all our scientists and the rest of the brainstrust here heading offshore or selling off. It all comes down to government spending. I predict that there will be a lot of changes going to be taking place here in the next few years politically. Whether that helps medical research or not we're yet to see. Remember we are a country of only 21 million people (approx). Howard, I think we do have the scientific experitize, we just don't have the initiative or the financial backing to do some things... it all gets sold out somewhere along the chain. I would like to see people working together for the sake of medical research, but for now I think we're just plodding along taking it one step at a time rather than in a position where we can go ahead in leaps and bounds.