The finding of a significant increase in the number of
grants funded by the National Institutes of Health leads to several
questions. Perhaps the most important of these questions deals with the
issue of duplication. Are all of these research projects necessary? Are
they unique and innovative? Are any of these grants redundant? Are those
researchers who are being trusted by the NIH to perform medical research
defrauding the American taxpayer?
While it is not within the scope of this audit to
fully answer questions of this nature, certain conclusions can be drawn
from a relatively limited number of additional searches that have been
run using the CRISP system.
In order to deal with this potential for duplication
within the NIH grant system some basic searches were performed via the
CRISP system. Three species were used: rats, mice and macaque monkeys
(chosen to illustrate both ends of the evolutionary scale). The results
of these searches were very disturbing. There are currently (for fiscal
2002) 187 separate projects (costing a potential $56,100,000 per year)
that examine neural information processing in macaque monkeys. Since
neural information processing could still be a potentially large area,
the topic was refined further.
Visual neural information processing in macaque
monkeys brought up 130 separate projects within the CRISP system
(costing $39,000,000 annually). 284 projects study cocaine in rats
($85,200,000), 110 projects study cocaine in mice ($33,000,000), and 51
projects study cocaine in macaque monkeys ($15,300,000). This is a total
of 445 projects studying cocaine in three different species. This gives
us an estimated total of $133,500,000 annually spent on 445 cocaine
addiction research experiments in only three species of animals. Using
these same three species as a basis we can find 85 studies examining
heroin ($25,500,000), 51 that examine marijuana ($15,300,000) and 44
that study phencyclidine ($13,200,000). Studies in heroin, marijuana,
and phencyclidine (PCP) in these species use a total of $54,000,000 per
year. One must wonder if the best way to deal with the substance abuse
problem facing the U.S. is to continue to manufacture drug-addicted
rats, mice, and primates.
Alcoholism is another problem that plagues our
society. The National Institutes of Health has responded to this problem
by funding 657 concurrent animal studies which examine alcohol in rats,
mice, and macaque monkeys. This leads to an estimated annual expenditure
of $197,100,000 for animal studies involving alcohol. How many humans
could be helped with the combined $384,600,000 that is currently being
spent on animal studies in alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, PCP, and heroin?
It must also be noted that some of these grants have
been in existence for decades. Specifically, several of the grants in
the area of neural information processing in macaque monkeys have been
in existence for over 30 years, with one reaching 39 years of age. This
type of information spawns several further questions. If this area has
been studied by dozens of researchers for decades, why are new grants
which often utilize essentially the same methodology continually
appearing in this field? If decades of study have not garnered
worthwhile information, why are more grants being approved? If the
decades-old grants are not sufficient to examine the field,
necessitating new grants, why do the old grants continue to be renewed?
Why is all of this research happening? To answer this question, the
funding of animal experimentation within specific facilities will be
examined.
