After clearing the House of Representatives in April, a bill meant to extend the life of programs that stimulate innovation at small biotech companies has finally found its way onto the floor of the Senate.

The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship passed the bill, which tacks on 14 years to the lifespans... Click to continue

Leading US research institutions may stop studying several federally-fundable embryonic stem cell lines due to potential ethical problems surrounding the creation of the lines.

As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education today (July 28), Stanford and Johns Hopkins Universities, and the ... Click to continue

A week after suspending a major HIV vaccine trial set to commence soon, Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has laid out a plan for reshuffling priorities in HIV/AIDS vaccine development in an article appearing in Science tomorrow (July 25), coauthored by a slew of HIV vaccine researchers.

"The general trend will be funding a bit more fundamental discovery research," Fauci said,... Click to continue

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a whopping budget of more than two billion dollars for the FDA in 2009. On Thursday (July 17), the committee unanimously passed the markup, which would represent an increase of more than $324 million over the FDA's 2008 budget and the first time the agency's budget would breech the two billion dollar mark.

The FDA budget boost is part of a larger bill, totaling almost $20.5 billion, that also contains provisions for global food assistance, rental... Click to continue

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) announced today (July 17) that it will not conduct a trial of an HIV vaccine that its own Vaccine Research Center (VRC) developed. It was known as the PAVE 100 trial.

"Based on the available scientific information, NIAID has decided that the VRC vaccine regimen did not warrant a trial of this size and scope and that PAVE 100 will not proceed," the NIAID said in a ... Click to continue

A science watchdog group has created a model conflict of interest disclosure policy that it hopes will be widely accepted by the editors of scientific and medical journals. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) unveiled the policy last week in advance of its ... Click to continue

Applications for grants to fund clinical studies do not fare as well in the National Institutes of Health's peer review process as do those for nonclinical studies, according to an NIH report released yesterday (July 14).

The report, which was conducted by NIH's Center for Scientific Review (CSR) and appears in this month's edition of The American Journal of... Click to continue

Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued a stark warning to the American Psychiatric Association on Thursday (July 10): Clearly outline the pharmaceutical industry's financial influence on your workings or incur my wrath!

Well, maybe Grassley didn't use those exact words.

"I have come to understand that money from the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of non-profit... Click to continue

Representatives from Maryland biotechnology start-ups made like potential contestants for The Price is Right last Monday (June 30) and camped on a Baltimore sidewalk awaiting a chance at success. But these people weren't desperate to participate in greatest game show on Earth, with a chance to win fabulous cash and prizes. They were lined up for a chance to suckle at the teat of the state's Department of Business and Economic Development, which was passing out state tax credits to biotechs... Click to continue

Not one single venture-backed US company completed an initial public offering (IPO) in the second quarter of 2008, according to a report released yesterday (July 1) by the National Venture Capital Association, and the news means that small, privately-funded biotech companies may find it difficult to stay afloat in these uncertain economic times.

"Companies will either disappear... Click to continue