Brussels: The second European survey [1] analysing how cancer research is funded shows that contrary to public perception Europe is a major contributor to the global cancer research effort.
Prof Richard Sullivan, chair of the European Cancer Research Managers Forum (ECRM), launched the organisation’s second survey, which looks at the overall €3.2 billion cancer research spend for 2004, at the European Parliament today (Tuesday 18 September).
“Contrary to public perception, a phenomenal amount of cancer research is carried out in Europe, evidenced by the huge amount of cancer research papers being published here,” said Prof Sullivan. “This is important, as many policy makers assume the global funding for cancer research is overwhelmingly concentrated in the USA. Our data indicate that this is not true and the effort is a truly global one. The possibilities for fruitful partnerships not only exist, but should be the basis for future long-term policy. We should not fail next generations in losing this opportunity.”
He stressed that with over 100 major funders in both Europe and the USA, who each spend more than €1 million a year on cancer research, as well as a number of important representational bodies, there has never been such a golden opportunity for a more co-operative approach in the field, particularly towards the funding of trans-national research programmes.
Prof Sullivan added that whilst global levels of cancer research expenditure on cancer research as a percentage of GDP continue to show differences between the USA and Europe, this gap has substantially narrowed.
“A major part of this survey has been its ability to estimate the cancer research funding flowing through national healthcare and university systems in Europe, but there has also been a real increase in some Member State funding whilst the USA shrinks in real terms.”
However Prof Sullivan made an urgent plea for less bureaucracy which he says is stifling cancer research. “The impact of regulatory policy on research funding and productivity remains, as it was for the first survey, a critical issue for all countries.
“Over the last decade the fashion for ever increasing regulation across all domains – clinical trials, healthcare data, human tissue – has led to an undesirable increase in the unit cost of research in the absence of any tangible social benefit from many of these regulations.
“Good research governance is essential but bureaucracy is absorbing too much of the global investment in cancer research. Bureaucracy and over-management remain constant dangers to progress. Funding organisations and government policy makers must guard against these dangers and, where necessary, simplify and harmonise.
“Since the first survey published two years ago, nearly 60% of Member States have increased their funding of cancer research in real terms, yet 30% have not,” said Prof. Sullivan. “Indeed the major policy issue is the real differences in cancer research investment between the Member States themselves, rather than the prevailing gaps in cancer research funding between Europe and the USA, which have been a driving force for EU policy-making to date.”
He continued by making a special plea to those EU countries which lag behind the 15 Member States which carry out the majority of the research.
“It is clear that some governments are still failing to appropriately support cancer research. For these countries the need for specific policy actions to ensure a limited core of high quality research within their institutions - relative to their R&D budgets - is crucial if these Member States have aspirations to become major locations for cancer research in the future,” he added.
The report also attempts, for the first time, to estimate the direct annual spend of the major pharmaceutical companies involved in cancer research.
“We estimate the top pharmaceutical companies spend some €3,095 million, or 22% of the estimated annual global spend on cancer research. Traditionally Europe has been considered weak in attracting industry R&D funding, however when one considers the geographical origin of pharmaceutical publications, Europe is very much an equal partner with the USA in cancer research. Indeed Europe attracts some 45.9% of (all disease) pharmaceutical R&D expenditure,” he said.
The survey:
- identified 155 non-commercial (public) funding organisations in Europe spending €1,971 million on the direct funding [2] of cancer research compared to €5,158 million by the USA. In Europe this represents a 38% increase since the last survey whereas funding in the USA has remained relatively static;
- revealed the average spend per capita across Europe was €3.42, a 34% increase since the 2005 survey and that USA per capita spend was €17.61, five times greater than Europe – yet in 2005 this gap was seven times greater;
- found Europe has, in addition €1,364 million flowing through national healthcare systems and universities to support cancer research compared to €109 million in the USA;
- shows Europe and the USA are evenly matched for cancer research outputs (volume of cancer research publications) with 52% and 48% of the output, and 1.3 versus 1.4 papers per billion euro GDP;
- estimated that global public sector cancer research funding (including indirect sources [3]) was €14,030 million.
- found public cancer research spend in Europe is evenly balanced between charitable and government organisations with 47% and 53% of spend, respectively. In comparison, USA government organisations are the dominant source of cancer research funding with 96% of all funds coming from ten federal funders;
- found the majority of European spend (80%) from charitable organisations is concentrated in just 14 organisations compared to 29 government funders and the majority of cancer research funding is raised and spent within 15 EU Member States;
- shows direct cancer research investment by funding organisations as a percentage of GDP and per capita remained higher in the USA compared to Europe, (three times higher percentage of GDP and five times higher per capita in the USA compared to Europe.) However, adding in the funding that flows through national healthcare and university systems, this gap narrows considerably (0.03% GDP Europe compared to 0.06% USA);
- found both Europe, and to a lesser extent USA, published research in cancer has become more clinical in the last eight years. Over this same period there has been a shift in 24 of the 31 countries in Europe towards more clinical research, but with some notable exceptions (Spain and Denmark) producing more basic research outputs.
Notes:
1: Investments and outputs of cancer research: from the public sector to industry. The second cancer research funding survey by the European Cancer Research Managers Forum. Authors: Seth Eckhouse, Grant Lewison, Richard Sullivan. 18 September 2007.
2: direct spend on research includes: salaries of researchers, laboratory equipment they use, and any consumables and/or other costs of the research. It does not include salaries of non-researchers, physical plant costs, or any other expenditure which does not produce research
3: indirect sources include “hidden” investment in cancer research identified through national systems, for example funding which flows through universities and healthcare systems as revealed by the bibliometric approach. Simply put, publishing a research paper is the major, tangible output of any research. In order to publish one must have done that research and that has to be financed. One can assign a cost per publication (this varies according to place, type of research etc) and so work backwards to determine how much money actually went into the system.
In 2004 there were an estimated 2,886,800 new cases of cancer with 1,711,000 deaths. Boyle P. Ferlay J. Cancer incidence and mortality in Europe, 2004, Annals Oncology 2005, 16:481-88.
At the end of the data collection phase of this survey, 144 out of 153 identified European funding organisations had reported back to the ECRM Secretariat, giving a 96% response rate. Five organisations reported that they were unable to provide funding information due to accounting practices within their organisation.
The European Cancer Research Managers Forum aims to cross national boundaries, promote better communication and collaboration between European cancer research groups and policy makers, inform the public about cancer research, and establish 'best practice' in cancer research management.
A pdf of the report will be available to download from www.ecrmforum.org from Monday 17 September. However please note the embargo of 10.30am (Central European time) on Tuesday 18 September 2007.
Media contact only Josie Bate + 44 (0)7971 101404
Seth Eckhouse: +44(0)7793747501
If you are unable to contact Josie Bate or Seth Eckhouse, please contact Emma Mason on +44 (0)1376 563090 or + 44 (0)7711296986 or e-mail her at wordmason@mac.com