The National Institutes of Health will establish by October its new center for helping pharmaceutical companies make drugs from university research discoveries, NIH leaders said Wednesday. They are moving ahead with the plan despite protests from scientists, lawmakers, and some agency officials.
"Change requires action," the director of the NIH, Francis S. Collins, said after meeting with advisers he described as committed to the creation of the NIH's proposed new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
No matter which way it goes, the decision on whether to create the center, known as Ncats, carries potentially major implications for universities and their researchers. Even critics of Dr. Collins's initiative said they recognize that too many scientific discoveries in university laboratories are not finding their way to the stage of industry development necessary to improve and save lives. At the same time, university scientists have warned that the proposed organizational changes could endanger more than $500-million a year in critical existing NIH programs. The proposed budget for Ncats is $700-million a year.
To read the full, original article click on this link: NIH Pushes Ahead on Research Division to Speed Drug Development, as Some Scientists Protest - Government - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Author: Paul Basken
