Ninety three per cent of projects that comprise China's National Key Science and Technology (S&T) Schemes had not finished their tasks by 2011, the end of the first stage, according to the Chinese National Audit Office (CNAO) in Beijing. Launched in 2009 and funding a range of activities from innovative drug development to airplane manufacturing, China's 16 key S&T schemes plan to spend some 600 billion yuan ($95 billion) in three stages by 2020 to attain the world's leadership in key fields. In a report presented on June 27 to the National People's Congress, China's legislature, Auditor General Jiayi Liu described an audit of 8 of the 16 S&T schemes, although he did not reveal which projects had been audited. According to Liu's report, 134 projects failed to meet their milestones, yet continued to receive funding for their next stages. Furthermore, 582 of the 2,401 sets of research results randomly examined by CNAO had been replaced by results from other projects. For the drug development scheme, the central government invested nearly 6 billion yuan ($882.5 million) in support of more than 900 drug development projects and technology platforms by the end of 2011. A Tianjin-based bio-entrepreneur, Zailin Yu, president of SinoBiotech, whose project was among those audited by CNAO, says “The reason [that so many projects failed to reach their milestones] is because the scheme's goal to develop the world's leading innovative drugs is unrealistic.” Rigid financial management and late allotment of funding also contribute to the failure to finish tasks, he adds. Liu reported that institutions and researchers involved in the audit have promised to correct their problems and improve management of their research funding.