Some Researchers Are Pleased, Others Indifferent, As RU 486 Moves Toward Ready Availability In U.S. Author: KAREN YOUNG KREEGER, pp.1
Date: August 22,1994
Biomedical researchers working with the antiprogestin RU 486 are expressing varied opinions on the mid-May announcement that the controversial drug will eventually be more readily available in the United States and how that availability may affect their investigations.
Some scientists consider the transfer by Roussel Uclaf--the Paris-based manufacturer of RU 486--of U.S. patent rights, free of charge, to the Population Council, a New York-based contraception research group, to be very good news concerning the drug's use in the U.S., both as an abortifacient and in biomedical research.
"I believe that when the compound is freely available [in the U.S.], more people will study it," says Leslie Z. Benet, a professor of pharmacy and pharmacological chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.
Researchers such as Benet say ...
