HUMAN. NATURE.

This is why we need public funding of science: Drug companies are never going to discover that blue food dye might save severed spinal cords. And if they discovered it by mistake they wouldn’t tell us.

The injury in question: When spinal cord or brain tissue gets hurt it oozes toxic stuff that kills a bunch more cells. Oops! Now you’re paralyzed or stroked out!

The drug in question: Blue dye. Really cheap. Found in Lucky Charms, I imagine. Definitely in the blue Fruit Loops. (LOVE those things.)

The discoverers: Some neurology types in Minnesota. They inject this stuff into rats with bum spinal cords, and unlike ALMOST EVERY DRUG ON EARTH blue dye crosses the sacred blood-brain barrier. That’s the first thing. Almost nothing can get across this barrier, which protects sensitive nerves from all the horrible chemicals in the stuff we eat and breath. Yeah, OK, stuff like cocaine and caffiene and beer can. But not many, um, lifesaving drugs. (That’s one reason brain cancers are so hard to treat.)

The result: Voila! Cheapo blue food dye stops the busted cells from massacring their neighbors.

(Questions remain. Most crucially: This has to be administered immediately, so… epi-pens of blue dye on every corner?)

Anyway, the whole point is: No pharma company was ever going to make a billion dollars on peddling blue food dye, which is manufactured in giant vats at a cost of pennies per box of Fruit Loops.

The other point is: We The Public love to roll our eyes at public spending on “goofy” research. I mean, dial back a few years when these researchers were applying for their National Science Foundation grant. Right? And if they had failed to find an effect… right? GOOD GOD! THE THINGS OUR TAXES PAY FOR!

Science is a trial and error undertaking. It doesn’t pay awfully well. Every serious researcher I know works 60 hours a week.

Contrast the new drug by Genentech, Avastin, which also crosses the blood-brain barrier. A year of treatment will cost you $55,000 to $97,000, depending on how much you can afford to pay before you die, according to a chilling article in Wired. The cost of treating one patient for a year is probably greater than the value of the ENTIRE grant used to research blue food dye.

Just saying. When We The Public invest in science, we all benefit. Well, maybe Genentech doesn’t benefit. But I”m OK with that.

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