deCODED?
A new map of the human genome should help both doctors and biologists

Will R&D Make Merck Hot Again?
The drug giant gets out of the prescription business and bets it all on science.

Cracking the cancer code
Whether a tumor invades the lung or breast is beside the point. Its genetic activity will dictate how to attack it

Report raps drug firms’ ‘post-approval’ studies
Drug manufacturers spent $1.5 billion in 2000 to test medicines already approved by the Food and Drug Administration primarily so they could make new marketing claims to sell their products, industry specialists said this week. Critics say the trend inflates health care costs while undercutting the integrity of research.

Of Clones and Clowns A distinguished molecular biologist discusses the “cloning circus” and the damage it is doing to serious research

Legal Circumvention
Molecular switches provide a route around existing gene patents

5 Big Drug Companies Face R&D Drought
Five of the world’s biggest drug companies do not have any potential billion-dollar drugs in late-stage development, highlighting the industry’s current poor R&D productivity, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Informatics Moves to the Head of the Class
The race is on to increase the quantity and quality of bio-IT training programs as government and academia bet the need will be great. Will the job market back that up?

Nanopharmaceuticals Open Up Brand New Field Of Study
Drug-binding molecules tiny enough to travel through the body’s smallest capillaries may provide a way to spare the heart and other organs from the toxic effects of drug overdose.

Networked Pharma
The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a deepening productivity crisis. The industry’s preferred escape mechanism from this predicament has been to increase investment in current business activities – primarily R&D and sales – to sustain productivity levels or, ideally, to exploit economies of scale. This has been implemented through organic growth of critical resources and/or M&A. The fact that productivity continues to decline after a decade of vigorous growth in investment levels, and against a background of increasing company size, bears testament to the fallibility of this strategy.