Jin Nakahara: Win-Win-Win

2018/11/20

News is filled with reports of Japan's declining basic science capabilities and the decreasing number of graduate students. Fortunately, my laboratory has not yet felt this directly, but I feel the decline in the acceptance rate for public research grants deep in my bones. When the acceptance rate for public research grants drops and we become "strapped for cash," it becomes impossible to guarantee not only my own research but also the free research activities of graduate students. Without financial independence, there is no academic independence; poverty dulls the wit. As someone responsible for dozens of medical staff members, I spend my days scrambling for funds.

Since I can do nothing about the state of public research grants, I have no choice but to collect private research funds. With student tuition fees being affected by the declining birthrate, it is also difficult to ask for an increase in research funds within Keio. Looking abroad, it seems that billionaires provide research funds as a tax measure, but in Japan, a "nation of 100 million middle-class people," expectations are unfortunately low. In our world, pharmaceutical companies with financial power used to allocate "scholarship donations"—transparent research funds—from their operating expenses. However, perhaps due to drug prices being lowered every year, or because it was discovered that they have little effect on doctors' prescribing trends, recently we cannot even get a "pittance." After all, they have shareholders, so spending money that does not lead to an increase in corporate value is practically a breach of trust. Thus, we turn to various "tied" research funds.

Pharmaceutical companies are in the business of selling drugs. In other words, they think of ways to increase doctors' prescriptions. If the effect of "donations" is weak, they try to improve doctors' prescribing trends through "differentiation of drug efficacy." When this is paired with "tied" research funds, it creates the breeding ground for the "distorted clinical research" seen at a certain university. It is only natural for patients who were used as pawns to be angry. As a result, the Clinical Research Act was enacted this spring, and clinical research using "tied" research funds is now subject to depressingly rigorous reviews. In the world of medical sciences research, the future is unpredictable.

What is needed now is not Win-Win, but Win-Win-Win. This means that not only the pharmaceutical companies, who are the source of research funds, and we researchers, but above all, the patients must be happy. For whom do the medical sciences exist? The price of forgetting this obvious fact is high. Speaking of private research funds, unlike national and public universities that are tied up in conflicts of interest, the Juku is a private institution. This crisis might be an opportunity. Thinking that way lifts my spirits. Today, as I search for the seeds of Win-Win-Win, I maintain my pride even in the face of adversity.