Medicine needs to embrace open source | ZDNet
peter.suber's bookmarks 2019-06-11
Summary:
"I'm far from the only one to conclude that open-source methods are needed to break what amounts to broken pharmaceutical research methodology and drug price gouging. Open Source Pharma, an organization devoted to building on existing initiatives to develop an alternative, comprehensive, open-source pharmaceutical system, is leading the way.
Dr. Manica Balasegaram, executive director for the Access Campaign of Médecins Sans Frontières, aka Doctors Without Borders, explained:
There is something rotten in the kingdom of biomedical R&D . . . That the system is inefficient is probably difficult to dispute. It works in silos, encourages a protectionist, proprietary approach, promotes duplication, multiplies failure, is costly, and importantly, is directed at markets and not at public health needs. The consequences are fatal....
Open source can revolutionize our hunt for better, more affordable medicine. It has everywhere else. It can in medicine, too...."