Indian overdrive

IBM has announced a huge push of people and resources into India, saying that it will invest US$6 billion there over the next three years. Its plans were unveiled by IBM chairman Sam Palmisano and Indian president Avul Kalam to a crowd of 11,000 cheering employees in Bangalore on 6 June. They include the expansion of existing computer laboratories in that city, as well as the establishment of a global telecommunications laboratory in New Delhi. The computer firm, headquartered in Armonk, New York, already employs some 43,000 people in India — more than it does in any other country outside the United States.

Back on sale

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it will allow the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri to return to the market — under strictly monitored conditions. Tysabri (natalizumab) was approved in 2004 but pulled from sale in February last year after its manufacturers, Biogen Idec of Massachusetts and Irish biotechnology company Elan, said that two patients had died in clinical trials of the drug. Shares in the two companies dipped on the 5 June decision, however, owing to the harshness of the proposed restrictions: Biogen Idec dropped $2.32 to $45.39, and Elan fell $2.46 to $16.52.

Generic go-ahead

The FDA, under pressure from the courts (see Nature 441, 23; 200610.1038/441023b), has approved a copycat version of a biologic — a drug made from living cells — for the first time. Omnitrope, which won European approval in April, is a generic version of Pfizer's Genotropin (a human growth hormone) and has been approved for the treatment of growth disorders. Sandoz, the German Novartis unit that makes Omnitrope, labelled the decision a “breakthrough” for makers of generics. But the FDA says its decision does not set a precedent for approval of generic biotech drugs, because most of them are regulated by a different statute from that applying to growth hormones.