Posted on 03/21/2005 7:51:51 AM PST by dead
I don't know, it seems doing research on adult stem cells takes all the fun out of it.
A perfect example of the uselessness of government research, and the potency of individual minds unfettered by government strings. Hooray for the private enterprise, seat-of-the-pants approach.
Let this be a lesson to taxpayers worldwide.
And private industry wants results and profits, so that money would abandon embryonic research in a minute if the funds were more productively spent elsewhere.
Nice thought, but venture capitalists don't fund research. Neither do most companies nowadays, which is why technology innovation has largely stopped in the US.
Nonsense. VCs fund a great deal of research, along with companies of various sizes, including stem cell research.
The vast majority of medical research is funded by NIH, not corporations. As for VCs funding research, don't be ridiculous. Research has a minimum 3-5 year time horizon (othewise it's called "developmnet") just to get a handle on the technology risks, and that's well beyond the scope of venture capital firms.
That's right - they fund useless Internet based companies and not biomedical research.
VC companies as well as pharmaceutical companies fund a lot of biomed research. And, if vast sums weren't extracted in taxes, taken via lawsuits, or stopped because of regulations, we'd have a lot more private ventures.
FWIW, these guys work for a university, no doubt funded by the Australian government. They obviously did a lot of grant-writing, though....
Stem cell research Poing. Looks like it works from adult stem cells taken from the nose.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
When they get adult stem cells to do everything embryonic stem cells can do, the adult stem cells will also be capable of becoming embryos. I don't see how this changes anything, for people who insist that embryos be treated as full fledged people. What difference does it make how something got to be an embryo?
Actually, this hasn't been true for at least five years now. And the VC firms that funded "useless Internet based companies" are no longer with us. In fact, just about the only thing that's getting VC money in the former Silicon Valley are biomed firms, but again that's not research, it's product development.
It would definitely be in the best interests of VCs making money to have taxpayers fund their risk. The recent ESC proposition in CA being an example. If they can get the NIH to fund the risk, that's a great deal for them. I have some investments I wouldn't mind having the taxpayers take the risk on too.
I worked for a startup medical company with a very smart CEO. He was able to get a couple rounds of financing out of some VCs, and he's now in charge of a successful, private company. Man do they hate him! LOL! I'm sure they'll get their money back some day. The company is about 11 years old.
VCs lose a lot of money on technology R&D. Why do they do it? Because it only takes one winner to make up for the losses.
Aside from the risk factor, the real problem is that research usually benefits someone other than the person funding it -- that's just the nature of research. So to be fair, most technology research has to be broadly funded. Up until the Clinton Administration, the vast majority of technology funding came from the federal government for this reason, but was then decried as "corporate welfare", and slashed. Welfare, yeah, show me any other welfare spending that has a 1000% ROIC.
VCs lose a lot of money on technology R&D.
No, they do not. VCs invest in businesses, which involve some development but certainly not research.
Imagine that, Smart Snot; these guys might have sneezed up a fortune.
I agree, and government funded research is the rare exception where government spending really pays off.
Now you're the one trying to take all the fun out of it.
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