Barcelona

When the Spanish government announced plans in September 1997 to open two world-class research centres in cancer and cardiovascular disease, the move was widely welcomed. But there were immediately questions over their long-term support.

Now, it seems, the government is hoping that the two Madrid-based centres — the National Centre of Cancer Research (CNIO), due to open next spring, and the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (IICV), work on which will probably start in 2001 — will receive a hefty chunk of their funding from private industry.

The government had pledged to meet the financial needs of both, including their construction and equipment. But the new minister of health, Celia Villalobos, appointed in April after a general election, appears to be retreating from this commitment.

The ministry has now announced that it will raise Ptas5.5 billion (US$31 million) this year from an agreement with Farmaindustria, a group of 240 drug companies. But this leaves the centres' long-term prospects in doubt.

Shaky foundations? Barbacid (inset) warns against relying on industry money to build cancer centre. Credit: CNIO

Mariano Barbacid, head of CNIO and internationally known for his role in the discovery of human oncogenes, fears that the ministry may no longer fulfil its commitments — including providing Ptas3.2 billion to CNIO's budget next year.

Barbacid says that he hopes this promise will not be dropped during the autumn's budget discussions. “The collaboration with Farmaindustria should come through research projects,” he says. “Pharmaceutical companies should not finance infrastructure [of the CNIO], as this agreement is only for this year, and the future would be left uncertain.”

Farmaindustria spokesman Carlos Nicolás confirms that industry support is just for one year. “Nobody knows what will happen next year.” Others claim that the agreement is part of a longer-term deal between the government and the pharmaceutical industry.

They point to a recent statement by finance minister Rodrigo Rato who announced the government's intention to “promote a pact with the pharmaceutical industry to avoid spending on drugs increasing at more than 8% a year”.

Some believe that Villalobos wanted a quick fix to the research centres' money problems because she is more concerned about the broad funding of healthcare than research.

Although the IICV is not likely to open until 2002, it is due to receive Ptas1.7 billion this year to start construction work. Salvador Moncada, director of the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at University College, London, who is said by some to have been asked to head the centre, is among those urging the Spanish government to make a long-term investment in research.

“A commitment to research does not just mean obtaining a one-off donation from the drug industry, but the stable and long-term financing needed to allow the development of a solid scientific base,” says Moncada, an adviser on the creation of the centre.

By law, 1% of Spain's health budget must be devoted to research. To reach this target, Moncada is proposing that the ministry guarantees providing at least 0.25%, with the rest coming from the drug and food industries.

Given the Mediterranean diet's role in protecting against heart disease, “authorities should regard the food industry as a potentially important source of biomedical research support,” says Moncada.

Villalobos appears to share Moncada's belief that industry should fund basic biomedical research. Shortly before the agreement with Farmaindustria was announced, she said that she was seeking “a stable, long-term solution to finance both the CNIO and the IICV that may eventually rely on a serious deal with the industry”.

http://www.cnio.es