title: [Biomedical research from philanthropy to scarcity.]
abstract: Some huge information technology companies have increased investment in biomedical research: recently Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. The latter presented the ambitious Zuckerberg-Chan Initiative involving three major Californian universities: UC San Francisco, Berkeley and Stanford. These important private investments arouse reflections. First, investing in scientific research improves the corporate image of the most generous companies and it is a great marketing strategy. Second, the availability of private funds is surely useful, especially if these funds are directed to relevant projects, and produce studies conducted and disseminated in a transparent way. Third, private funding should not replace public ones, representing an integration that will not likely affect the determination of the research agenda, which should remain the prerogative of public institutions. Fourth, the researchers involved in public funded projects should benefit from the margin of freedom that private industry promises, both in the decision of research pathways and in their course. Finally, the scarcity of resources is likely to divert energy and attention of the public researchers and this aspect should be considered by decision makers when determining size and recipients of research funding.
authors: Dipartimento di Epidemiologia del Servizio Sanitario della Regione Lazio.
authors: Antonio
authors: A
authors: Addis
authors: Associazione Alessandro Liberati - Network Italiano Cochrane.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: De Fiore
authors: Istituto Superiore di Sanità.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Traversa
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D009938:Organizations; D014495:Universities