San Francisco

A Californian biotechnology company is pulling the plug on a successful mouse-genetics institute at the University of Toronto.

The withdrawal of support from the Amgen Institute is the latest indication that biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms — faced with declining profits and empty drug pipelines — are losing some of their appetite for backing basic university research.

The six laboratories at the institute were considered to be exceptionally productive (see Nature 411, 519–520; 2001). But an agreement this week between Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California, and Toronto's University Health Network hands the administration of the institute to the Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) in Toronto.

Although the financial details of the agreement have not been made public, Tak Mak, the Amgen Institute's director, says it will mean a sharp decrease in support from the Californian company. The institute's researchers will resort to individual grants for most of their funding, he says.

Since the institute's birth in 1993, its 50 or so scientists and technicians have been employed by Amgen, giving the company control of any intellectual property rights arising from their discoveries.

The move is part of a larger restructuring at Amgen, one of the oldest and largest biotechnology firms, with 7,000 employees and sales last year of $4 billion. The reshuffle is expected to align research more directly with product development.

Amgen will continue to provide support “at a level appropriate to the new arrangement”, says Roger Perlmutter, Amgen's vice-president of research and development. It is estimated that Amgen's previous support amounted to around $8 million per year.

Christopher Paige, vice-president of research at the OCI, says there are no plans to reduce the size of the research group. “We think the Amgen Institute is one of the best groups in the community,” he says.