Chancellor George Osborne has allotted £5.9 billion ($9.2 billion), £1.1 billion per year, over the next parliamentary term to research infrastructure. Half of the £3 billion for supporting labs will be awarded based on competition. “Grand challenges” will receive £2.9 billion. Of that amount, £800 million will go toward projects including chemistry and nanotechnology research, […]

As of the end of October, the US FDA had conducted 97 inspections of the more than 600 pharmaceutical plants in India registered with the US. It found that at many facilities producing medicines for export to the US, samples of drugs failing to meet quality standards for purity were retested rather than discarded. Failed […]

The Russian government’s goals for the sciences call for an update to the country’s scientific system. The goals are for R&D financing to make up 1.77% of GDP, Russian scientific publications to constitute at least 2.44% of the global total and the income of Russian scientists to be 200% that of the average in their […]

With oil prices at a five-year low, down 20% since July, many oil companies are reducing costs. For example, ConocoPhillips will decrease by 20% its 2015 investment spending, and BP plans cuts to jobs over the next several months. However, ConocoPhillips expects its gas and oil production to increase by over 3% next year due […]

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 […]

Third quarter IBO Life Science Index sales grew 7.0% on a reported and currency-neutral basis, to $3,581 million. Operating profit climbed 12.7% to $762 million. Index results were elevated by Illumina’s performance but partially offset by Bruker. Excluding these two companies, organic sales and adjusted operating profit grew 5.4% and 6.7%, respectively. Based on continuing […]

St. Louis, MO 12/5/14; Washington, DC 12/5/14; Darmstadt, Germany 12/5/14; Darmstadt, Germany 12/8/14—Sigma-Aldrich shareholders have approved the company’s acquisition by Merck KGaA for $17 billion (see IBO 9/30/14). Approximately 78% of shareholders approved the proposal. In connection with the purchase, Merck announced the issuance of a €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion = $1 = €0.81) hybrid […]

Lansing, MI 12/8/14—Neogen, which develops and markets products for food and animal safety, has acquired the food-safety and veterinary-genomic assets of Beijing Anapure BioScientific, its Chinese distributor. Financial details were not disclosed. “China’s burgeoning middle class, with its rapidly growing demand for higher quality meat and dairy products, makes the country a substantial growth opportunity […]