Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
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E m e r g i n g b i o t e c h n o l o g i e s<br />
7.34 In reality, much scientific knowledge does not meet the criteria of being a public good in this<br />
classic, ec<strong>on</strong>omic sense. Scientific knowledge is, in fact, excludable to a large extent, through<br />
secrecy, patenting, or high costs of access. 523 The actual reas<strong>on</strong>s states fund research are not<br />
self-evident, but are likely to be neither simply an acceptance of market failure nor a universal<br />
philanthropy. They may include, for example, military security and nati<strong>on</strong>al ec<strong>on</strong>omic growth. On<br />
the other hand, many things that states do, such as providing overseas aid, are not easily<br />
analysable in terms of a simple rule, such as to maximise gross nati<strong>on</strong>al product, but recognise<br />
instead the complex interdependencies and trade-offs, <strong>on</strong> a number of different levels, of<br />
bel<strong>on</strong>ging to a global community. Even a ruthlessly competitive state may recognise advantages<br />
to cooperati<strong>on</strong> or the expediency of developing overseas markets.<br />
7.35 Am<strong>on</strong>g the ways in which the public good might be promoted by publicly funded research is<br />
through the creati<strong>on</strong> of public knowledge available to all, created independently of private<br />
interests. In general, there might be a case for ensuring that the public and those acting in its<br />
interest have the countervailing knowledge required to assess private, interested claims for<br />
example, claims for the efficacy of particular drugs. 524 This would also entail active support for<br />
independent research, recognising as a central issue, that not all – indeed, not much – research<br />
will be independent. 525 Such public knowledge should c<strong>on</strong>tribute to a new and more explicit<br />
appreciati<strong>on</strong> of the limits of knowledge and predicti<strong>on</strong> in the face of uncertainties, with the aim of<br />
bringing an end to over-promising.<br />
Nati<strong>on</strong>al research and ec<strong>on</strong>omic growth<br />
7.36 Innovati<strong>on</strong>, derived to a significant degree from research and development, has transformed the<br />
world and has permitted large increases in both varieties and levels of output. The relati<strong>on</strong>ship<br />
between nati<strong>on</strong>al R&D investments and nati<strong>on</strong>al rates of ec<strong>on</strong>omic growth is, obviously, highly<br />
dependent <strong>on</strong> particular circumstances, but it cannot be assumed that nati<strong>on</strong>al R&D<br />
expenditures are a major determinant of nati<strong>on</strong>al growth rates. The extent of the relati<strong>on</strong>ship will<br />
vary by country and with time, as well as with policy: what might hold for the US, or Japan, or<br />
the world as a whole, will not necessarily hold for any particular country.<br />
7.37 Nevertheless, the assumpti<strong>on</strong> is made that nati<strong>on</strong>al research is critical to nati<strong>on</strong>al growth, and<br />
that if it does not lead to growth there must be a problem of translati<strong>on</strong>, development funding, or<br />
investment. This is not necessarily so, however: most countries get most of their innovati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
from abroad (though it is worth noting that in some cases this might involve nati<strong>on</strong>al R&D). The<br />
assumpti<strong>on</strong> that, as far as research is c<strong>on</strong>cerned, nati<strong>on</strong>s are ec<strong>on</strong>omic and scientific units<br />
competing with each other, and that research is <strong>on</strong>e of the most powerful weap<strong>on</strong>s in that<br />
ec<strong>on</strong>omic c<strong>on</strong>test may well be mistaken. Nati<strong>on</strong>s are not generally competing with each other,<br />
something like free trade operates between nati<strong>on</strong>s, and research activity is <strong>on</strong>ly partially<br />
organised nati<strong>on</strong>ally.<br />
7.38 In fact it might be quite misleading to identify R&D performed in a particular nati<strong>on</strong> with that<br />
nati<strong>on</strong>. Excluding defence and related R&D which is clearly nati<strong>on</strong>al, most private research is<br />
c<strong>on</strong>cerned with the growth of particular firms, not the nati<strong>on</strong> in which they c<strong>on</strong>tingently operate.<br />
Indeed in the UK, approximately 22 per cent of business R&D is funded from abroad<br />
(c<strong>on</strong>siderably higher than for other countries), 526 and the proporti<strong>on</strong> of R&D carried out by<br />
of inventive activity: ec<strong>on</strong>omic and social factors, Groves HM (Editor) (Princet<strong>on</strong>, New Jersey: Princet<strong>on</strong> University Press)<br />
Mirowski P (2011) Science-mart: privatizing American science (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press).<br />
523 We discuss the commercial exploitati<strong>on</strong> of such knowledge in Chapter 9.<br />
524 See: Angell M (2005) The truth about the drug companies: how they deceive us and what to do about it (New York: Random<br />
House); Borch-Jacobsen M (2010) Which came first, the c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> or the drug? The L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> Review of Books 7 October,<br />
available at: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n19/mikkel-borch-jacobsen/which-came-first-the-c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>-or-the-drug; Agnell M (2011)<br />
The illusi<strong>on</strong>s of psychiatry The New York Review of Books 14 July, available at:<br />
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusi<strong>on</strong>s-of-psychiatry/?paginati<strong>on</strong>=false.<br />
525 See, for example, Goldacre B (2012) Bad pharma: how drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients (L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>: Fourth<br />
Estate).<br />
526 Department for Business, Innovati<strong>on</strong> and Skills (2011) BIS ec<strong>on</strong>omics paper no.15: innovati<strong>on</strong> and research strategy for<br />
growth, available at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/BISCore/innovati<strong>on</strong>/docs/E/11-1386-ec<strong>on</strong>omics-innovati<strong>on</strong>-and-researchstrategy-for-growth.pdf,<br />
p47.<br />
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