In order to boost Germany’s flagging pharmaceutical industry, the nation’s Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has announced a new initiative. The Pharma-Initiative, with a budget of €800 million, will run until 2011. The Initiative’s goals include improving innovation within the industry, fostering communication among industry participants and assisting firms in bringing their highest-potential products through the drug development pipeline. The Initiative includes the BioPharma measure, a funding program designed to stimulate industry collaborations that will improve the movement of biotech drugs from discovery to production. BioPharma has a budget of €100 million. Source: PharmaTimes