Announcements of job loss in big pharma continue, with the UK press saying that GlaxoSmithKline will soon announce 4,000 layoffs, nearly half in R&D. linkurl:(The Guardian);http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/health/article7010418.ece AstraZeneca said last week it would cut 8000 jobs, 3,500 of them in R&D, and noted plans to outsource more of its research and trim the number of disease areas on which the company focuses. linkurl:(Wall Street Journal Health Blog);http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/01/28/astrazeneca-to-cut-another-8000-jobs/
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In a rare case of the agency censuring an individual rather than a company, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to Miami Beach clinical researcher and dermatologist Leslie Baumann for "expressing premature enthusiasm" over a not-yet-approved injectible anti-wrinkle drug, the New York Times linkurl:reports.;http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/business/01wrinkle.html?ref=health The linkurl:letter,;http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/WarningLettersandNoticeofViolationLetterstoPharmaceuticalCompanies/UCM198400.pdf issued last month, says Baumann improperly promoted the drug in statements to the media in 2007. Stem cells: an approval and some grants
NIH director Francis Collins has ok'ed linkurl:an advisory council's recommendation;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57093/ to include one of the most commonly used embryonic stem cell lines, developed by Wisconsin researchers, in the linkurl:federal registry;http://grants.nih.gov/stem_cells/registry/current.htm?id=29 of embryonic stem cell lines. Meanwhile, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced linkurl:a new round of grants;http://www.cirm.ca.gov/files/meetings/pdf/2010/%23%208%20for%202_3-4_10%20ICOC_RFA10-02%20TT2%20Concept%20Proposal%20012710.pdf for developing "tools and technologies for translational bottlenecks" -- including "disease in a dish" models. Researchers in both academia and industry are eligible to apply, the linkurl:California Stem Cell Report;http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/2010/01/cirm-proposes-40-million-stem-cell.html notes. A homeopathy protest
A society of skeptics in the UK this weekend staged a mass overdose of homeopathy therapies to show that such treatments don't work. They staged their treat-ins outside of branches of the major UK pharmacy chain Boots -- which sells homeopathic medicines -- in a handful of cities. The group said similar demonstrations were planned for Canada, Spain, the US, and Australia, linkurl:The Independent reports.;http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/mass-overdose-staged-in-homeopathic-protest-1884019.html PhD thesis, anyone?
Finally, PhD supervisors and PhD students -- check out linkurl:this guide;http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=410208&c=1 to how not to write a PhD thesis. This one isn't specific to the life sciences, but we'd say the key points apply. Our favorite no-no: "Assume something you are doing is new because you have not read enough to know that an academic wrote a book on it 20 years ago."
**__Related stories:__*** linkurl:Right your writing;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/56104/
[November 2009]*linkurl:Research loss in Pfizer-Wyeth deal;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56063/
[16th Octoberm 2009]*linkurl:Profiting from pluripotency;http://www.the-scientist.com/2009/02/1/60/1/
[February 2009]*
