Regulatory authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency face continual criticism for their plodding pace of drug approval decisions. In 2009, the last year for which complete data are available, the median time for a standard review of a drug application in the US was 13 months—30% longer than the agency’s target for such reviews. But even with this situation, it’s undeniable that both agencies devote far more human and financial resources to the process than most other countries can afford to spend on their own.
One might think that the managers of the Australian Synchrotron would be panicking given the news that neither the federal government nor the Victoria state government has addressed in their just-released budget proposals how the facility will be funded beyond June 2012, when its original 5-year financial plan ends. After all, the two governments currently provide most of the synchrotron’s annual funding. Yet, at least publicly, those running the synchrotron are thinking not about how to save the young facility but how to grow it. “We are now in the process of wanting to expand,” says Andrew Peele, a physicist at La Trobe University in Victoria who has been head of science at the synchrotron since late last year. Continue reading Australian Government Silent on Synchrotron Budget While Scientists Plan Expansion→
MADRID — In Spain, the government’s overall spending on research is set to wither by about 8% this year, according to an analysis released last fall by the Confederation of Spanish Scientific Societies. Given the climate of budget cuts, it’s perhaps no surprise that scientists there are turning to the public for funding. Continue reading Facing budget cuts, Spain launches funding foundation→
A defamation case that hinges on a dispute over the presence of genetic modification in Peruvian maize crops, and that has attracted international attention, has moved back to square one — with a twist.
Biologist Ernesto Bustamante Donayre was last April found guilty of defamation — a criminal offence in Peru — for publicly criticizing a report published by a fellow biologist. Last month, however, the conviction was overturned: the appeal judge found that a lower court had not demonstrated that Bustamante had sufficient motivation to harm or defame his alleged victim. A recent government study of the crops in question may shape the outcome of any subsequent proceedings, Bustamante says.
Regulatory authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency face continual criticism for their plodding pace of drug approval decisions. In 2009, the last year for which complete data are available, the median time for a standard review of a drug application in the US was 13 months—30% longer than the agency’s target for such reviews. But even with this situation, it’s undeniable that both agencies devote far more human and financial resources to the process than most other countries can afford to spend on their own.