Since my first post I've certainly had second thoughts. What the hell was I doing, signing up for this? Raise a million bucks? I was watching an episode of Life on DVD with Hidden B, and suddenly I broke out in a cold sweat. It's like the time someone signed me up for the talent show in grad school and there's a week to go and I still haven't figured out what I'll be doing; all I know is that I'll be making an ass of myself in front of a lot of people.
Fortunately the internet allows me a degree of anonymity. I'll be making an ass of myself but I'll have a paper bag over my head. I'm still serious about this thing.
What really freaked me out at first was not the thought of writing, but the thought that at some point someone might write me seriously and offer funding, but demand that I tell them what I planned to do with it. Let me be perfectly clear: nobody's handing ME money. I'm going to set up a foundation with pro bono legal advice, and get a first-class scientific advisory board. My model for this is the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation--something I have to look into in greater detail-- but those guys have it worked out right. They distribute money, but they make damn sure the scientists receiving it do what they're supposed to. They set goals and run the foundation like a business.
A random thought that occurred to me. When I said $1 million, I meant $1 million USD. (I'm a dual Canadian-American citizen and ought to make the distinction.) But that's just an amount. The currency doesn't matter.
What might matter, I think, is where drug trials get done, when it comes to that. Drug trials probably have to be done in the U.S. If the FDA doesn't approve a drug it won't have the necessary market potential to make it viable to produce.
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