The Ethics of Funding Innovation: Who Should Pay?

With billions being spent yearly on medical research and development, a look is warranted into how innovation in medicine is funded. Neurosurgical innovation in particular can cost millions of dollars for the development of new therapies. In the United States, the private sector is by far the largest annual funder of medical research (over $100 billion), with the federal government ($36 billion) contributing less than half as much as private companies. Other sources, such as patient advocacy groups, academic institutions, and state and local government funded a substantial but much smaller amount of research.