Sorpresa

El premio Nobel de medicina no va para un médico cubano!

Se han entregado tres premios correspondientes al año 2006. Dos individuos comparten el premio Nobel de medicina, otros dos comparten el premio Nobel de física, el de química va para el hijo del ganador del premio Nobel de medicina del año 1959 (lo que debe ser un asado de domingo en esa familia). Los cinco galardonados son norteamericanos. Gran novedad.

Gran parte del mérito va para las universidades norteamericanas, cuyo motor es la libre competencia y cuyo premio está dado en la absorción de la mentes más brillantes del planeta.

Pensar que uno de los criterios normalmente citados cuando se considera a la Argentina con luz positiva respecto de sus pares latinoamericanos es la cantidad de premios Nobel que dio al mundo: 5. De Harvard salieron 41.

Acá la opinión del gran Tyler Cowen sobre porqué Estados Unidos (a pesar de no tener un sistema tan "fantástico e igualitario" como el europeo y mucho menos que el cubano) es el líder mundial en salud:

In real terms, spending on American biomedical research has doubled since 1994. By 2003, spending was up to $94.3 billion (there is no comparable number for Europe), with 57 percent of that coming from private industry. The National Institutes of Health’s current annual research budget is $28 billion. All European Union governments, in contrast, spent $3.7 billion in 2000, and since that time, Europe has not narrowed the research and development gap. America spends more on research and development over all and on drugs in particular, even though the United States has a smaller population than the core European Union countries. From 1989 to 2002, four times as much money was invested in private biotechnology companies in America than in Europe.

Dr. Thomas Boehm of Jerini, a biomedical research company in Berlin, titled his article in The Journal of Medical Marketing in 2005 “How Can We Explain the American Dominance in Biomedical Research and Development?” (ostina.org/downloads/pdfs/bridgesvol7_BoehmArticle.pdf) Dr. Boehm argues that the research environment in the United States, compared with Europe, is wealthier, more competitive, more meritocratic and more tolerant of waste and chaos. He argues that these features lead to more medical discoveries. About 400,000 European researchers are living in the United States, usually for superior financial compensation and research facilities.

This innovation-rich environment stems from the money spent on American health care and also from the richer and more competitive American universities. The American government could use its size, or use the law, to bargain down health care prices, as many European governments have done. In the short run, this would save money but in the longer run it would cost lives.

Medical innovations improve health and life expectancy in all wealthy countries, not just in the United States. That is one reason American citizens do not live longer. Furthermore, the lucrative United States health care market enhances research and development abroad and not just at home.