"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"

Four years ago, Michelle Holmes, Wendy Chen and collegues reported a significant negative correlation between aspirin use and breast cancer (Holmes et al. 2010). This summer, they noted that no randomized trials have been initiated that test this potentially important association. Why not? Pharmaceutical companies fund most drug research; there is no profit in aspirin. This explanation is incomplete. The deeper issue is a mismatch between the public interest in advancing research, and the interests of the institutions that governments subsidize in different ways for that purpose. In addition to patent protection, governments directly fund public granting agencies and provide the tax relief offered by private charities. Like pharmaceutical companies, these have their own "stakeholders" and objectives. Nobody, it appears, is interested in aspirin.