Naomi, your question "Does anyone know how much medical research (in perinatal health specifially if possible) is supported by the government (in the US) and
how much is supported by commercial interests?" is a good one.

Last night I wrote this answer, then hesitated to send it since I didn't have time to prepare good support for my statements: That's a tricky question given that some government agencies accept funding or other forms of sponsorship from commercial interests (e.g., sponsorship of conferences for governement agency employees) and/or employ researchers who are otherwise currently or formerly associated with commercial interests. I don't have figures, but I have seen such things happen along the years. I'm sure there are many such instances of the influence of commercial interests on government sponsored medical research.

Then, this afternoon I read this article, "NIH Directors No Longer Drug Firm Consultants" from the LA Times:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=2026&e=3&u=/latimes_ts/20040123/ts_latimes/nihdirectorsnolongerdrugfirmconsultants

(Since that long link is likely to get broken in transmission to Lactnet, be sure to paste every piece of broken text in when you try to find the article.)

How's that for an example?

Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab, MS, IBCLC, RLC
Ammawell
Website: http://home.comcast.net/~ammawell
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