Barcelona

Biomedical researchers in Spanish universities and hospitals are to receive a large cash injection from the pharmaceutical industry — in exchange for a promise from the government that it will not tighten price controls on drugs.

The unusual agreement will deliver US$275 million over three years to the health ministry's research agency, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISC). This figure almost matches the $130 million a year that the Spanish government currently spends on biomedical research.

The announcement, made on 31 October, has been warmly welcomed by researchers. But although the money is supposed to come with no strings attached, some scientists have already expressed reservations that industry may influence how it is spent — and that the ISC may not distribute it efficiently.

The agreement is intended to ease the tension between the government and Farmaindustria, a body that represents 300 drug companies. Relations between the two have been strained since the health ministry lowered the caps that it imposes on drug prices by 6% in 1999.

In return for a promise from the government not to lower prices again, the industry will give the money to the ISC for “cancer, cardiovascular and genomics research”. The industry also pledges to raise its annual budget for clinical trials conducted in public hospitals from $80 million to $135 million.

Of Spain's current investment in biomedical research, only about $20 million comes from grants at the ISC. The agency has been supported by Farmaindustria before — last year it received $30 million from the industry group to help build the Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO) and the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (IICV), both of which are under construction in Madrid (see Nature 406, 550; 2000).

The health ministry says that it has not decided exactly how to distribute the new funding. But some officials say that one-third of it will go to the CNIO, the IICV and genomics and proteomics research, with the rest going out as grants to research groups in public hospitals, and to support the training of researchers.

The government has rejected Farmaindustria's suggestion that a panel representing both parties should manage the money, and the industry is to set up its own panel to monitor how it is spent.