Will donations fund dichloroacetate (DCA) clinical trials?

I meant to have asked this in the previous thread on this topic: If we accept that big pharma has a conspiracy to stop this drug being tested, why don't countries with social health care (like the UK) perform the trials? Surely it would save them money in the long run? Or are the people running the NHS(etc) also paid off by big pharma?

I have one thought on this that I haven't seen raised elsewhere. The research, to date, has been done in Canada, which has a smaller population, hence, fewer cancer patients to enrole in trials.

Also, Canada does not spend nearly as much money on medical research as the US. Money is tight for Canadian researchers, and with these findings, they can justify asking for some more grant money. It doesn't surprise me, that without a corporate sponsor, that a Canadian research hospital might hit up some big name donors. Don't blame them a bit.

This paper attempts to answer some of the points you raise about the dangers of bypassing the normal (if flawed) peer-review process.

The question I should like to pose is this: if you are a biomedical scientist who fails to convince your peers of your views on a particular matter of legitimate scientific inquiry, is it acceptable that you take your minority views to the streets in order to drum up public and media support for your stance?

http://www.udo-schuklenk.org/files/prbspd.pdf

I agree with you in part, Orac, but I'm afraid the scientist-as-salesman model has already gone past the point of no return. In the current NIH environment of interdisciplinary research, it is not uncommon to find a peer review committee where a large number of members are not experts in your speciality, and therefore often judge your work based on your ability to sell it to an educated layperson, as well as your public profile. I know that my field has one scientist in particular who is incredibly well-funded through traditional peer-reviewed mechanisms, even though the bulk of people in his speciality finds him unethical and his science questionable. The reason he is funded so well is because he is a superb salesman. As a student, I was taught the need to "sell" your work, and I teach this to those that work for me. I wish it weren't so, but I don't see this as a first step down the slippery slope; rather, I see it as yet another meter passed about halfway down the mountain.

There was just an editorial about this in New Scientist. Unfortunately you need a subscription to read the whole article. For those of you who have subscriptions or whose institutions do, it can be found at www.newscientist.com by searching under DCA.

I think New Scientist isn't sceptical enough sometimes.

Given that the funding climate right now for research is pretty bad, it's not unreasonable to try to extract funds from other sources,
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Please read the article this links to.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061206/stelmach_k…

I would think that the Alberta government's pledge to put between half and a billion dollars towards cancer research should fund the DCA study quite nicely. I cannot imagine asking for public freaking donations for research this important. Who do they think will donate? Alberta is a rich province and has a lot of retired almost dead multi mult multi millionaires, but why not apply for this money as opposed to waiting for some old guy to die?

And, there is a lot of cancer research and stuff like that in alberta. There is the Cross Cancer Institute right on the edge of the Uof A campus in Edmonton and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary. I have no doubt that they are able to recruit enough patients for studies, as there are a few million people within about a five hour drive of Edmonton and Calgary.

Given that the funding climate right now for research is pretty bad, it's not unreasonable to try to extract funds from other sources,
===============
Please read the article this links to.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061206/stelmach_k…

I would think that the Alberta government's pledge to put between half and a billion dollars towards cancer research should fund the DCA study quite nicely. I cannot imagine asking for public freaking donations for research this important. Who do they think will donate? Alberta is a rich province and has a lot of retired almost dead multi mult multi millionaires, but why not apply for this money as opposed to waiting for some old guy to die?

And, there is a lot of cancer research and stuff like that in alberta. There is the Cross Cancer Institute right on the edge of the Uof A campus in Edmonton and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary. I have no doubt that they are able to recruit enough patients for studies, as there are a few million people within about a five hour drive of Edmonton and Calgary.