Sir

Changes to the way in which the Medical Research Council (MRC) distributes funds in the United Kingdom are indeed welcome, as is any increase in the medical research budget (Nature 427, 665; 2004). However, to put the latter point into perspective, the entire MRC budget is not much more than the increase of US$729 million proposed by President George Bush for the US National Institutes of Health budget in fiscal year 2005. On this point, the best one can say is that a very small pie is now merely small.