Medical Research to Shift to Asia

Medical research is facing a crisis in the West. Ethical, religious, and moral concerns are hampering research like never before. Scientists face attack from politicians, the media, pressure groups, and religious bodies. Such attacks are the inevitable result of Western, plural liberalism that allows for everyone to be given a voice. And so stem cell research, for example, has been under threat in the US and animal testing is threatened in every Western country, most vociferously in the UK. So what can scientists and big drug companies do? The answer is that they can shift their research and testing to countries that are not plural liberal democracies, and where pressure groups have little voice and the media is muzzled; essentially to where authoritarian governments ride roughshod over ethical and moral concerns — countries like China and Singapore. In fact, virtually every major Asian government is now attempting to develop a local life sciences industry using a combination of tax and other incentives.