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"Novelty has a very high premium [now]," according to James Powell, director of the department of pharmacology in the Lawrenceville, N.J.-based laboratories of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., headquartered in New York City. "For a [new] drug to be truly successful and be accepted for health coverage, it needs to fulfill an imminent medical need, or provide a new approach to improve an existing therapy." Powell, who has been in the indust

Six interdisciplinary teams of AIDS investigators received initial awards totaling more than $6 million last month in the launch of a novel effort sponsored by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The money represents the first of four years of funding the scientists will receive through the new Strategic Program for Innovative Research on AIDS Treatment (SPIRAT). SPIRAT will sup

Back To:Genome Project Ethics Office Is Achieving New Prominence In National Policy Debates Principal Investigator: David Asch Institution: University of Pennsylvania Project Title: How Much Information About the Risk of Cystic Fibrosis Do Couples Want? (two awards) Project Period: 9/30/91 to 8/31/95 Project Title: Prescriptive Decision Modeling for Cystic Fibrosis Screening Project Period: 9/30/91 to 8/31/94 Principal Investigator:

Sidebar:Active and Recently Completed NIH ELSI Research Projects With passage of time and increasing political relevance, HGP branch's influence is on the rise among decision-makers Beginning this year, the component of the United States human genome initiative that has been sponsoring studies of the ethical, legal, and social implications of the massive genome effort's ground-breaking research will be reporting the first hard resul

And the investment has paid off--as evidenced by, among other things, HHMI researchers' prolific and influential publication record: Last year, for example, nearly one- quarter of the 200 most cited biomedical publications by U.S. scientists were authored by HHMI-affiliated investigators (see story on page 14). But despite the institute'S imposing presence and glowing achievements, some researchers and agency officials contend that

Seven natural scientists and, for the first time ever, a sociologist are cited by U.S. president for their contributions For the first time since the National Medal of Science--the United States' highest scientific honor--was initially presented by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, a sociologist has been selected as one of the recipients. Robert K. Merton, University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, New York City, and sev

Kathleen G. Morgan, a professor of physiology in medicine at Harvard Medical School's cardiovascular division at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, has been named the new director of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI), effective Jan. 1, 1995. BBRI is an independent, nonprofit institute whose mission is to learn more about the natural world through basic biological research. The 25-year-old organization has about 20 principa

Scientific Journals On CD-ROM Proliferate The following scientific societies produce journals on CD- ROM or have active development projects in the works. For more information on society memberships or journal subscriptions, contact the societies directly at the telephone numbers given. American Chemical Society (ACS), Washington, D.C., (202) 872-4600 (Biochemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society) American Institute of

Their redefined mission is leading researchers at DOE labs to take on unusual -- sometimes bizarre -- assignments At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, researchers are taking the bang out of old munitions dumps, using a special group of TNT-eating microorganisms. Meanwhile, on a weapons-test site near Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., a remotely operated, minature robot helps biologists stud

Back to Basics In AIDS A New Twist Energetic Activity That's Edutainment Fullerene Bonanza On The Fly Chilling Results Although last month's 10th International Conference on AIDS in Yokohama, Japan, yielded little in the way of good news concerning progress to date in efforts to combat the pandemic, some researchers were able to leave the meeting with the hope that future gatherings will be less gloomy. William E. Paul, head of t

Under pressure to reap return on investment, companies are seeking ways to ensure success in designing drug tests This past July, Synergen Inc. suspended clinical trials of its anti-inflammatory drug candidate, Antril--being tested to fight sepsis--for lack of efficacy. Faced with the setback to its $100 million-plus investment, the Boulder, Colo.-based biotech was forced to lay off more than half its work force and shut down two

These days, many biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms facing the daunting road to market with a new drug are opting to get help from contract research organizations, or CROs. These service companies specialize in providing all or part of the necessary clinical trials; they also manage regulatory reviews. And their participation in the drug- development process is growing dramatically as the number of candidate compounds coming thr