Because of concerns within the Obama administration about the glacial pace of new drugs coming out of the pharmaceutical industry’s pipeline, the feds have announced a billion-dollar government drug development center to help create new medicines. It’s typical government-think: Having over-regulated drugs to the point at which industry is unable to innovate in spite of record investment in R&D and powerful new research tools, the bureaucrats intend to take over. They want to be both the arsonist and the firefighter.
Last December an NIH advisory panel approved a new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences that will attempt to “translate” basic research findings into pharmaceuticals. Since then, NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services have been fast-tracking the center, hoping to have it up and running by October.
