Money isn't everything in research

China is awash with new cash to spend on research, Nigeria has a $5 billion trust to develop applied technologies and India boasts over 20 000 pharmaceutical startups alone. But still it seems there are some things that research money can't buy.

China and India are emerging as places where money is no issue when it comes to research. The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology just announced that more than a billion yuan (US$130 million) will fill the coffers for research into traditional chinese medicine (TCM).

That is 5-6 times the previous spending round. A further 8 billion yuan has been allocated to the health budget for traditional medical treatments. Yet beneath this rain of additional funding, skeptical voices can be heard. China is being questioned about the way the money will be spent, and its medical safety record is poor.

There's no evidence that things will improve by simply spending more. And according to an editorial in the April 5th edition of Nature, China's share of the global market in TCM is being eroded by Japan and South Korea. There, cash flows at a reduced pace but the quality is better.

Affordable, but not ethical

Biotechnology is booming in India and investors are flocking to the generics market, that is, to the production of drugs that are no longer covered by patents. But some are uncomfortable about this boom taking place alongside India's yawning economic disparities.

Sanofi Aventis Chairman Jean-Francois Dehecq denounced the pharmaceutical industry in India, Thailand and Indonesia in an interview with Reuters in January. He said local producers are "exploiting people" and then selling drugs cheaply to those that "can already pay".

This is an issue of opportunity cost. Foreign and domestic players are queuing to invest in the pharmaceutical sector. But with such handsome profits to be made from cheap copies of popular drugs, little investment is finding its way to research.

Finally, there is the dicey situation in Nigeria. Riding on the back of abundant oil revenues, outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo recently endowed $5B for science and technology. That's enough for a research budget more than twice that of relatively well-off South Africa.

Combined with co-financing from businesses and international aid organizations, Nigeria could afford a program on a par with many nations in the developed world. But these plans are clouded by the country's bottom 6th ranking on the global Corruption Perception Index.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is bracing itself to ensure the money goes to vitally important research in health and agriculture. But no one is holding their breath for the spending boost that outside partners would bring.

Thus, even with a supreme effort to allocate funds wisely, the Nigerian government is unlikely to get the same benefit from its investment that could be obtained in a more politically stable environment.

These three examples tell the same story. China, India and oil-rich Nigeria currently have the cash and the will to fund research. But they are likely to struggle to realize the full potential of this enormous additional funding.