Andra Brichacek

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-Merck’s pharmacy benefit arm, Merck-Medco, is under fire for switching patients to more expensive pharmaceuticals.

If only two words could be used to describe Big Pharma's promotional spend trends during the past 12 months, they would be "it depends." Budgets are simply tools and the industry uses them as such: to determine just the right spend, on a certain type of product, during a particular phase of its life cycle.

The founder of five biotech companies rarely pauses, even to rest. "I can do a lot of work when the rest of my family is sleeping," he reports. "Early in the morning or late at night, there are no phones, so I needn't divert my attention." His affable tone seems contrary to the relentless drive needed to support a lifelong pursuit of excellence, but his achievements speak for themselves.

Although industry seeks to protect its rights, the only long-term solution is working with the international community to address the AIDS crisis and other serious health problems.

A cure for cancer is the Holy Grail of modern medicine--long sought but seemingly unattainable. Because cancer cells are not foreign, easily identifiable invaders, but native parts of the bodies in which they live, neither the immune system nor chemical compounds have been able to accurately target and eliminate them from healthy tissue.

New Delhi, India-Anthrax, a disease that most commonly infects livestock, has been diagnosed at an increasing rate in humans in the southern states of India. The disease has been eradicated in the developed world but remains endemic in South India, mostly due to a lack of effective human and animal vaccines.

Beijing, China-Chinese scientists registered more than 110 patents on genes cloned last year from the human hypothalamus}pituitary}adrenal axis. They profiled the axis} gene expression, cloning more than 300 previously unknown genes discovered during its sequencing.

United States-At this time last year, the United States} supply of tetanus vaccine was easily met by the two companies licensed to produce it there, Aventis Pasteur and Wyeth-Ayerst. But in June 2000, the latter ran into regulatory problems, and FDA seized thousands of substandard doses of acellular pertussis vaccine from the company}s Marietta, Pennsylvania, plant.

Socioeconomic Reform in Japan Clears the Path for Pharma Companies' Success There.