Biomedical Research Partenerships By Wajahat Mehal, Noor
- 2. Global Knowledge Forum, Knowledge Economy City & Knowledge-Based Industries Biomedical knowledge (as a product). How is it generated? Clinical Research: Asks questions directly relevant to patient care Is a drug effective, what dose/side effec ts Applied Research: Applies existing knowledge to a specific objective Refine drugs to best inhibit a target enzym e Basic Research: Increase knowledge on fundamental processes of life It is the foundation for the applied and clinical research Knowledge Investment KEC & KBI Established Pharma Biotech Companies Venture Capital/ New Start-up
- 4. Biomedical Research In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia * Arab countries are well behind industrially developed countries and the emerging countries in East Asia Islam and Science: Oil Rich, Science Poor. Nature 2006 Islam and Science: The Data Gap. Nature 2006 * Publications: scientific articles per million citizens World average – 137 OIC average - 13 Only 0.5% of publications from KSA are in the top 200 scientific journals
- 5. * Investment in Science: World average spending on research - 2.4% of GDP Gulf countries average – 0.4% of GDP WBDI Arab Countries Have to Date Invested Very Little in Science Direct Comparison With USA and UK KACST: 30 yr $50M NIH USA: 2007 $25B (GDP 35 X) MRC UK: 2007 $1B (GDP 5.5 X)
- 6. Departments of Gastroenterology at KFMC, KFSH and Yale Univ. From Jan 2007 to Dec 2007 only: KFMC KFSH Yale Tenure track faculty 2 6 25 Average % of time protected for research 0% 0% 50% Number of service fellows 2 4 11 Number of research fellows 0 0 17 Number of new patients seen 1270 --- 6200 Research funding 0 0 $7.6M Publications: Clinical 0 4 16 Publications: Basic science 0 0 57 Infrastructure: KFMC and KFSH – No dedciated research space Yale Univ. Six story 350,000 sq feet building Construction took 2 years It took 20 years to build a dept with 25 active faculty
- 7. Recommendation: Establish Focused Research Groups in KSA Focused Research Group Principal Investigator Technicians 1-4 Postdoctoral fellows 2-20 Interim Summary Knowledge Investment KEC & KBI Established Pharma Biotech Companies Venture Capital/ New Start-up Research activity Publications Patents
- 8. Proposal Goal: Develop a working research partnership Means: i) A permanently ON web link ii) Weekly joint lab meetings iii) Integrated research plan iv) Joint review of data v) Joint publications Time-line for milestones Year 1: Web station, staff hired weekly joint lab meetings Year 2: Technical expertise transferred to KFMC abstracts submitted Year 3: Two on-going projects papers submitted Year 4: Papers have been accepted work has been presented at international meeting Year 5: Original scientific goals have been met Research group at KFMC has started an independent project Dept Gastroenterology Dept Gastroenterology. Yale Univ. Research Partnership Dept Gastroenterology KFMC