Why should individual donors and the private sector fund university and hospital research when there is government funding such as the NIH?
In general, just talk to any CAM researcher and you will learn that CAM research funding is difficult to come by. Big pharmaceutical companies are not behind CAM because most of CAM cannot be patented. Also there is also a public funding imbalance with only 1% of NIH dollars going to CAM research. NIH NCCAM funding is very competitive and funds research projects that have significant amount of data behind them leaving bright young researchers behind needing bootstrap funding. There is a definite need for private donations to increase CAM research dollars to correct the funding imbalance. Consumers are leading the movement to embrace CAM usage. AlterMed is counting on charitable individuals and private foundations to help correct the research imbalance to advance CAM health research.
