The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) is being forced to hand over half of the money it has earned from exploiting its intellectual property.

The MRC's £200-million (US$400-million) 'commercial fund' consists of the profits from discoveries such as monoclonal antibody technology. In the past, the MRC had been allowed to keep the money and use it to build medical research facilities.

But on 14 December MRC officials announced that £92 million would be given over to the government's consolidated fund, which is used by the Treasury to fund general programmes. Martin Rees, the president of the Royal Society, Britain's main independent scientific body, called the move a ?breach of faith? with scientists.

?In fairness, a lot of the money is being retained for science,? says Leszek Borysiewicz, the MRC's chief executive. The MRC will also be able to keep future intellectual-property earnings, as long as they are forecast correctly. But he adds that the decision by the Treasury is ?worthy of debate?.