In November, the US EPA proposed updates to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ground-level ozone. Both the primary (public health) and secondary (public welfare: protecting trees, plants and ecosystems) standards for the average level over any eight-hour period would be 65–70 ppb. Both are currently 75 ppb. Current and proposed federal rules, such […]

Of the $22.5 billion the NIH spent to support research In 2013, more than $5.7 billion was for indirect costs. Universities, nonprofits and hospitals received $3.9 billion, $611 million and $550 million, respectively, of this amount. Indirect costs are not linked to any specific project and are often for administrative and facilities expenses. The costs […]

By 2020, orphan-drugs sales are expected to total $176 billion, growing 10.5% annually from 2014, compared with 5.3% for the overall prescription drug market. Orphan drugs are forecast to account for 19% of prescription sales worldwide, excluding generics, up from 6.3% in 2000. In 2013, their sales totaled $90 billion, increasing 6.8% from 2012. Approval […]

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found low-level microbial contamination to be common in DNA-extraction kits. Contamination can affect results in some applications, such as deep sequencing of amplicons, in which microbial DNA can result in a competing signal. The researchers found when they extracted DNA from 10,000 or fewer cells of Salmonella bongori using […]

The US government has temporarily halted new funding for gain-of-function research on influenza, MERS and SARS viruses. Gain-of-function studies are defined as “research that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease.” The stoppage applies to research that “may be reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to influenza, MERS or SARS viruses such that the […]