In June, British Biotech (Oxford, UK) announced a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its cancer drug, marimastat. Although an investigation started by the SEC last October concluded that British Biotech had willfully misled the public regarding progress of the drug, the company and three former directors have simply had their knuckles rapped with an order to continue adhering to US securities laws. The settlement did not involve an admission or denial of the allegations (nor payment to the SEC). The news came two days after the company agreed to withdraw allegations of improper behavior against its former head of clinical research Andrew Millar (Nature Biotechnology 16, 609, 1998) and agreed to pay him an undisclosed sum.