From Portfolio.com

by David Ewing Duncan

Congressman Patrick Kennedy wants the government to spend more money on your brain—and everyone else's.

Scientists estimate that about 100 million Americans will one day develop neurological disorders, and for many of those maladies, treatments either don't exist or could be more effective.

At a press conference in Washington last week, the Rhode Island Democrat unveiled plans for a new National Neurotechnology Initiative that would spend $1 billion over five years to boost brain research, regulation, and drug development.

This comes as a transition is underway from Prozac-era antidepressants and other psychopharmaceuticals to new classes of targeted neurotreatments that are based on the latest scientific understanding of the brain.

Newer classes of drugs now being tested include pills that act on brain receptors that control memory, cognition, mood, inflammation, and more. Turning these receptors up or down can treat a range of diseases, from Alzheimer's to chronic pain. They also introduce a whole new category of drugs that enhance cognition and memory in healthy people by as much as 20 percent, with few side effects.

The problem is that nearly all neurotreatments fail to make it through the long, arduous process of Food and Drug Administration trials. This makes neurotech one of the most costly segments of pharma, with a success rate of about one out of 10 drugs that enter human clinical trials.

"The industry has had a number of drugs that have made a huge difference for patients, but as a business it has been stunningly unsuccessful," says Sam Barondes, director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco and the author of Mood Genes and other popular books on psychiatry and drugs.

The only reason investors put up the billions of dollars needed to sustain these losses is because success in markets for drugs for conditions such as depression and pain can be huge. Some 20 out of 25 leading drugs that treat the central nervous system each generate revenue of more than $1 billion per year.


Many major blockbusters are going off patent, however. Prozac went generic in 2001. This year Wyeth's patent will expire for its antidepressant, Effexor, which has sales of more than $2 billion a year; so will Janssen's Risperidone for schizophrenia, with sales approaching $2 billion a year.

Kennedy's legislation comes out of an effort by a new trade group called Neuroinsights. It has been making a case since 2005 that there is a separate "neurotech" industry, one that treats tens of millions of people—and reaps $120 billion in revenue annually.

Kennedy's legislation will ask the federal government to spend $200 million a year for five years. "We believe this money will improve the odds of success," says Zack Lynch, the co-founder and managing director of Neuroinsights.

Among other things, the bill allocates $30 million to the Food and Drug Administration to train more experts and to improve operations; $80 million to the National Institutes of Health to coordinate neuroresearch efforts, which now fall under 27 different institutes; and $75 million to increase small-business grants for neuro-based companies.

The initiative also includes $10 million to explore the ethical, legal, and social implications of more-powerful mind drugs.

This funding is vital to launch a public debate about a psychosocial shift already underway to medicate every little edge in life—a move that could take us down a path toward Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, where the masses take a drug called soma that keeps them in a happy stupor most of the time.

Pills that enhance are also likely to roil our society if these compounds actually boost the cognition and memory of people who are already smart. As Kennedy's press release said, money is needed to analyze and discuss "issues such as its appropriate use in the criminal justice system, or enhancement of soldier and civilian mental capabilities."

If spending this money seems a no-brainer in a country that is getting older and will suffer from ever more neurological ailments, then I wonder why Kennedy isn't asking for even more money.

The nanotech initiative has so far received over $9 billion in funding. Surely neuro, which impacts 100 million brains in the U.S. alone, deserves as much federal largess as nano—if it is targeted at truly going after the new breakthroughs that will work best.

Isn't this something more suitable to the pharmaceutical companies?

I thought they wanted to search for brain activity in Democrats.

I actually don't have a problem with this. Having a better understanding of the way the brain works is a key to having a better picture of who we are. Mapping the human genome, creating the big bang in a lab, visiting the starts and developing a complete picture of the human brain. These are endeavours that go beyond one company, beyond one man; they are pursuits that require a overwhelming cooperation across the country and across the globe.

And as someone that makes regular visits to the neurologist, I'm all for finding more causes of neurological conditions and better treatment for said ailments.

How do those dollars compare with the money spent on Iraq?

Section 8 - Powers of Congress
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

I wasn't asking who has the power to spend for Iraq, or whether they have that power, I was trying to make a point as to the relative dollar-for-dollar value of the money spent.

I guess this falls under the general welfare category J

The response was not directed at anyone in particular.


Fixed.

"Kennedy's legislation will ask the federal government to spend $200 million a year for five years"

How quickly do we spend that much money on Iraq?

::crickets::

A day, more or less.

This was meant to be a discussion on health and science, not a political debate. Oh well...

How quickly does the federal gubmint spend that much money on "education"?



Sorry, fella.

No biggy. TICG took the first political stab.

fixing Iraq is easier than fixing brains though, in the long run and may prove more beneficial to all of us, not just those who have defective neuro transmitters like myself