Spinal cord research in danger of losing funding

This could have serious implications. Worse yet is that one of the most serious injuries that the human body can sustain is also one of the rarest to occur condemning it to the bottom of the research barrel in both the number of facilities conducting research and in terms of funding.

As long as spinal cord research continues to be underfunded it will be difficult for researchers to find ways to help those of us with those injuries. It is important for the states to continue to help fund those projects. A million dollars or even 8.5 million dollars may seem like a large sum to the average person but when you consider the resources a person with those injuries is going to consume such as Medicare, social security, welfare and so on it is not that much. The sooner we find ways to either cure these injuries or make it so they are not so catastrophic the sooner those with them can return to being productive members of society and stop depending on all those other resources.

Perhaps it is time to get the large pharmaceutical companies involved?

Merck is one of the leading drug companies in the world, if not the largest. In 2004 they had a revenues of $22,938,600,000 (that's BILLIONS) with a net income of $5,813,400,000 (again that is billions).

Novartis is another large company who showed huge numbers for 2004. They generated revenues of $28,247,000,000 and had a profit of $5,767,000,000.

PFIZER had revenues of $52,516,000,000 and a net income of $11,361,000,000 which represents an increase in profits over 2003 of almost 191%.

This is just 3 of the many companies who are in the business and these 3 alone had profits of almost $23 Billion dollars. Can you imagine how much the combined industry has made in the last year? How much of it came from super inflated prices of medications? And they cannot dish out a few extra bucks for research?

Now some of you may be saying, "but they don't make any drugs for spinal cord injuries so why should they contribute"?

Because there ARE drugs that work for spinal cord patients. Of course they are not going to cure or even prevent the injuries from happening but they can make the life of patients better. Of course the research done on those projects can lead to answers across the board.

Those numbers however remind me of why I truly detest those large companies. Those profits come from overpriced medications and with the industry having such a powerful lobby they will continue to post those types of numbers.

By Shirley Wang
Inquirer Staff Writer

A row of rats riding tiny bikes greets you when you walk into one of Itzhak Fischer's labs at the Drexel University College of Medicine. Their hind legs spin round and round, strapped to ever-moving pedals.

They may look as if they're at a health club, but their backs have been compressed, mimicking human spinal-cord injury. The workout helps to keep their muscles in shape and spinal cords talking to their brains. And Fischer hopes they will soon help his team learn how to rehabilitate people.

But funding from the National Institutes of Health is tightening, and Pennsylvania is not among the 14 states that dedicate a tax to spinal-cord research. Fischer faces the prospect that his funding will be cut next year, and his 20-year-old center may have to be downsized.

A relatively small number of people - about 11,000 - suffer spinal-cord injuries each year in the United States, making the condition unlikely to attract significant private funding from sources such as pharmaceutical companies.

Fischer's group - now in the last year of a $5 million federal grant over five years - is one of only four Program Projects, large research centers on spinal-cord injury funded by the National Institutes of Health.

He worries whether he can replace the $1 million a year needed to keep the center going.

"We are in such a crisis," he said. "At the state level and foundation level, we have to find alternatives."

Fourteen states - New York, New Jersey and Maryland included - have designated some kind of surcharge for unsafe driving to fund spinal-cord research. Car wrecks cause most such injuries in the United States, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center.

Each of the states spends at least $1 million a year on the research. New York tops all at $8.5 million. Pennsylvania does not have such a fund.

Sue Pendleton, chairwoman of the Maryland Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund, said that "it is literally very fiscally smart to fund this at the state level."

In Pennsylvania, this year's tight budget required cuts for some existing health programs, and some question whether another tax can be added.

"Spinal-cord injuries are a very serious problem," said Sen. Robert Thompson (R., Chester), chair of the appropriations committee. "The question is how many different surcharges do we end up putting on violations?"

The costs of spinal-cord injury are enormous. Those who survive often need special equipment and extensive health-care services. Because their life expectancy is relatively normal, expenses pile up. The lifetime cost of a ventilator to help one person breathe is close to $4 million.

Yet, small improvements in spinal function could lead to drastic effects on patients' lives.

For instance, if the late actor Christopher Reeve, who championed spinal-cord research after his own accident, could have regained function of just one spinal-cord segment, he could have stopped using his ventilator, Fischer said.

Bills to fund such research were introduced at least twice since 2001 in the state House, but have not been enacted.

Legislators are leery to raise taxes on already high traffic fines, said State Rep. Sandra Major (R., Susquehanna), who introduced the bill in previous years but has no plans this year.

Others may, however. "My record is I'm against fee increases," said Sen. Michael J. Stack (D., Phila.), "but something like a fee or tax on reckless driving that would help to aid people who've suffered catastrophic injuries is exactly the kind of appropriate surcharge to consider."

Funds from traffic fines used to cover medical costs for people injured in car accidents. Now the money goes to pay for part of malpractice insurance for physicians, state officials said.

Meanwhile, research is thriving at Drexel - for the moment.

A spinal injury disrupts communication between nerves, and reconnecting them is notoriously difficult.

Using neuronal stem cells, Fischer's lab has had success bridging and regrowing the communication path between nerves in rats, which improved their everyday actions.

In a paper to be published shortly, Fischer found that rats with bladder spasms and abnormal urination improved after getting stem cells, which could decrease the risk of kidney disease.

State funding would help the work proceed. "No one else is going to take care of it," he said.