PS, I was expecting for the Button bar above the Forum to get the same functionality as it has on the front page and on the Statistics/My Grid page. Don't know if that is planned.

Hi John and Wendy, and welcome to WCG forums!
Actually this is a question regularly asked here, more or less directly, either by doubtful potential new participants who want to know, or by older members who are asked by friends to whom they are trying to "sell" the idea.

It goes from "is it for profit?" or "I don't want to give free work to big pharmas" from people who have not read at all about WCG and its projects, to "how can I be sure that the results of our work will be public domain?" from people who have read but wonder how it is enforced.

Personally I think that it is better to ask than to stay with a wrong opinion and go away.

Between the two extremes above there are the "yes, but some companies will be able to use these public results to make products (drugs, usually) that they will sell and make profit with". One common answer is "yes, fortunately, because there are lots of other steps to go through between fundamental findings and a safe and efficient drug that can be distributed to the public, and the labs who work with WCG and us would hardly be able to handle all these subsequent steps". Also one must remember that for some of our projects like HCMD2 the market is so smaller that most big pharmas would never start the work if they had to do it from scratch. It's not for nothing that these diseases are called orphan diseases.

You may search the Chat Room forum for such threads or have a look at specific project forums in the Active Research section for threads where the scientists explain what needs to be done after we hopefully provide promising results.

Thank you for your interest, your contribution and for trusting WCG. Jean.

Nah, it's an honest question.
My feeling is that in say 5-10 years there will be drugs and/or treatments to cure disease from the foundation of data that we are accumulating now.
So when the unfortunate day comes those years from now that one of us or our children are diagnosed with some nasty disease the next words from the Dr. will be "But there is treatment to cure this"
THAT is how we all profit.
Personally, I look at this work as something to do for my kids and yours.
I honestly can't think of anything that i could possibly do for them that can be worth more to them.

I think it is essential that people understand that scientific results are shared within the scientific community and the results are published for all to see, in scientific papers, reviews and even online.

What the drug companies do with the results is a different and separate matter. Yes they are profiteering off the back of scientific research, other peoples work. Yes, not enough money actually goes back into research. Yes they have become far too powerful, capable of interfering with politics and economies, but they do make drugs and some of them even work.

You should also realise that results often tell us something that just changes our understanding and behaviour towards disease. Research does not necessarily lead to the manufacture of a drug. It can lead directly to a disease management system that extends and improves peoples lives.
Sometimes even to find the source of a disease.
For example, the tsetse fly does not in itself give you sleeping sickness, it is the parasite it carries that does the damage. Without the parasite there would just be a bite, no disease. We know this because of scientific research.
When it was worked out that mad cows disease was caused by a prion the governments could take action to prevent its spread.

So not all scientific research is drug orientated.
Recent scientific research has shown cancer to spread faster during times when patients have infections or secondary illnesses. This is due to the immune systems behaviour, and cancer taking advantage of it.
Although this may lead to a drug, some day, for now it allows for a better understanding of many cancers behaviour. This enables doctors to more accurately perform risk assessment and design better management systems for patients. Perhaps it helps explain why chemotherapy sometimes works.