Dear all
The comments below were received and forwarded to me from Stefanie Kethers at ARDC.
Bridget
I am not an RDA member, but thought I’d send very brief top-down comments.
Sorry, but the whole 124 page document is too long for my available time. I did read the Exec Summary. This is a good effort overall. Most of the things listed here have already been happening for months now across the board. However I have no idea who might be holding back, and if this will prompt them, so this concept is good. Just might be late to the party I think, but a solid effort. There is still a long way to go to share the raw data tho.
Here is my initial viewpoint, assuming that the rest of the document is really good. From my perspective, this document, like so much current thinking, seems to ignore the whole drug discovery efforts. The massive work happening before anything first hits the patient. It does not seem to measure the progress of vaccine development either. Except for ‘omics’, the document seems to start only when the drug or vaccine hits the patient. There are huge numbers (1000s) of posts on bioRxiv and medRxiv in this target development space in 3 months. Unless I missed it in my brief skimming, the RDA document has a whole section on OMICS, but none on this massive part of the effort seems to be included (molecular and cell biology or pharmacology or medicinal chemistry are not omics). It seems unbalanced in this regard. Of what use is much (certainly not all) of the rest of the RDA guides if people don’t share which drugs or vaccines or molecular targets are looking promising, before hitting clinical trials? Not just after. Share the promising targets or approaches being revealed, as well as the dead-ends? As an example, a few papers posted on papers on bioRxiv and medRxiv have impacted on my thinking and drug development effort, sometimes just from the anecdotal discussion within some.
The RDA document also feels a little anti-IP. If so, I think could be counter-productive in part (I did not check this point in detail in the 124 pager, might have misunderstood). IP is a tool to further incentivise researchers and companies that actually manufacture and deliver products. Otherwise, valuable things may not get developed or even marketed at all. The counter view that IP can be an impediment is very real, but I think it is something to watch out for, not to discourage.
My apologies if some of my comments are off the mark. I am sending only in the spirit of constructivism and our common aim of public good.
Phil
Professor Phil Robinson, BSc (Hons), PhD
Head of Cell Signalling Unit, Children’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney
The University of Sydney, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health
Co-Director of ProCan – The ACRF International Centre for the Proteome of Human Cancer
Co-Director of ACRF Centre for Kinomics
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