The George Institute has received $US8.8m in grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It will undertake a 5-year analysis on where R&D money is spent globally, on the development of new prescription drugs for neglected diseases. Neglected diseases include malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS. Currently, more than $US1.6b is handed over to R&D pursuits to address neglected diseases.
The key objective of the study is to examine how the money could be better spent, by addressing areas of low awareness and exposure to existing funding.

What an amazing opportunity it would be for complementary medicine to receive similar funding; to pursue clinical trials in the development of natural medicine.

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A lot of people have never heard of homoeopathy. How many people have not heard of a doctor or GP? How many people accept this as the only method of healing the body? This wasn’t always the case.

Homoeopathy was introduced to Australia in the 1850s by UK trained practitioners. All were equipped with 5 years of training qualifications and according to the British Medical Association standards. By 1883 the first Homoeopathic hospital was opened in Melbourne. Success rates in treating typhoid fever in the 1889 outbreak were higher when treated homoeopathically. By 1901 Sydney had their own hospital. By 1924 the Melbourne Homeopathic Hospital found there were not enough trained homoeopaths to meet the demand and medical practitioners were asked to assist. This brought a lot of changes and the Hospital was no longer entirely homoeopathic. The name was changed to Prince Henry’s Hospital in 1934 and ceased to be a homoeopathic hospital. By World War II homoeopathy was in decline, as antibiotics had paved the way for a faster, speeding bullet for curing ailments of all kinds. Government support and a technology revolution made Homoeopathy appear obsolete and old-fashioned. Combine that with increasing pressure from the American Medical Association (AMA) and pharmaceutical companies with expensive backing. In fact, several natural therapies were suffering the same fate - although cheaper with considerably less side effects and naturally derived.

I will end this post with a summary of my favourite quote from the Organon of Medicine by the founder of homoeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. The practitioner’s aim & responsibility is to restore the sick to health & vitality, maintain unbiased views & clear about the nature of illness, the best remedy for cure, the proper dose and the nature of the remedy. Take into account lifestyle & environmental factors pertaining to disease, through this the offending invader will be removed. This is achieved by the vital force being elevated to its normal state of power, restored to balance.A