A new study has reported that US-based organizations funded 44% of the world's biomedical research in 2012, down from 57% in 2004 (JAMA 313, 174–189; 2015). US governmental biomedical funding fell by 7% of the total global governmental biomedical funding (from 57% to 50%), and US private biomedical industry funding fell by 9% of the total global private biomedical funding (from 50% to 41%). The results are in line with a previous analysis that showed that the US biomedical research funding declined from 51% of the global total in 2007 to 45% in 2012 (New Engl. J.Med. 370, 3–6; 2014). Both studies showed that China, India, South Korea and Singapore have in the meantime been posting gains in their share of research funding.

The analysis was done by Hamilton Moses III, of the Alerion Institute think tank, and colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Stanford, the University of Rochester and the Boston Consulting Group.

The authors also reported that the United States' share of life science patent filings has fallen from 57% in 1981 to 51% in 2011. In terms of top-cited publications, US researchers published 63% of the total in 2000 but only 56% in 2010. The study also found that whereas the science and technology workforce in the United States grew annually by 2.7% between 1996 and 2011 to reach 1.25 million workers, in China it grew annually by 6% to reach 1.31 million workers. This makes the Chinese science and technology workforce the largest in the world, the authors note.

“The analysis underscores the need for the United States to find new sources to support medical research, if the clinical value of its past science investment and opportunities to improve care are to be fully realized,” the authors write. They suggest several mechanisms to raise funding, including foreign capital repatriation, biomedical research bonds analogous to those used to finance sports stadiums and airports, and public–private risk-sharing collaborations. “Given international trends, the United States will relinquish its historical international lead in the next decade unless such measures are undertaken,” they write.

Two other means of boosting biomedical research funding have also been proposed recently. Under one, the patents on drugs would be extended by one year and the additional revenue would be funnelled to research efforts (Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 14, 147–149; 2015). Under another, drug makers who break the law would have to redirect some of their profits to the US National Institutes of Health.