Sir, – Further to recent calls for governments to fund pharmaceutical research directly (June 4th), for this research to be successful what is needed is the general encouragement of the conditions under which bright people are prepared to set up businesses and engage in large amounts of expensive trial and error to discover novel pharmaceutical products, resulting in potential for significant financial reward which can be used to refuel the ongoing research cycle.
Centralised public sector involvement in research will only result in a top-down culture starved of funds and stymied by government regulation that will deter entrepreneurs and risk-takers. What pharmaceutical development really needs is tax breaks for entrepreneurs, light-touch regulation, access to global talent and tolerance of failure. – Yours, etc,
Dr VINCENT DAVIDSON,
Enniskillen,
Co Fermanagh.