As for $ amounts, with the billions I've shown in profits from CAM treatments,
and the fact that the NIH is putting millions into research, why can't the
makers of cremes do just like the regular drug makers do?
--
Victoria
>From the NCCAM website.
Funding Strategy: Fiscal Year 2001
Overview
NCCAM's Fiscal Year 2001 appropriation from Congress is
approximately $89 million. This figure reflects a 29%
increase over the Fiscal Year 2000 budget.
Research Project Grants
In Fiscal Year 2001, the Research Project Grant (RPG)
portion of the NCCAM budget is expanding to 36% of the
total budget. RPGs accounted for 24% of the Fiscal Year
1999 budget.
The RPG line item is expanding relative to other segments
of the budget in light of more than a 12-fold growth in
grant applications received since Fiscal Year 1999.
Most of this money is targeted to investigator-initiated
research.
NCCAM estimates that the success rate for competing grant
applications will be approximately 17% in Fiscal Year 2001.
This figure reflects a substantial decrease from the Fiscal
Year 2000 success rate of 29%, reflecting the large
increase in applications received. [Note: The success rate
is the
percentage of applications that receive funding.]
Request for Applications
The Request for Applications (RFA) mechanism is intended to
stimulate the research community in specific areas
identified as high priority by the National Advisory
Council on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
In Fiscal Year 2001, NCCAM is allocating about $12 million
of competing dollars to support RFA applications.
From: anonymous@obgyn.net (Another)
Actually, IMO, what is important to consider is risk vs. benefit. I
would always prefer the least toxic treatment. HRT has a long list of
dangerous side effects which needs to be taken into consideration. As
for placebo being 40% effective, does that mean that 40% of women on HRT
do not need to put themselves at risk? Given the choice, I would prefer
that useful placebo to increasing my risk of heart disease or stroke, if
only it could work that way! I do not discount the value of any therapy
simply because it does not bear the pharmaceutical industry $tamp of
approval. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so also is the
proof of the therapy in the most safely achieved results.
AA
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