PharmaStart (8.01.03)

Phyllis Gardner, who teaches pharmacology at Stanford Medical School and has kept us informed about the drug price issue, should be able to comment on the New York Times (7/31/03) report on a development in which Stanford will play a key role Drug companies are becoming reluctant to invest in academic medical discoveries, so a consortium has been formed by Stanford University, SRI International, the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), and UC San Diego, Named PharmaStart, its task will be to move discoveries made at the schools into clinical trials. Drug companies are becoming averse to investing in research.

PharmaStart has been called a marketing tactic by SRI, which initiated the consortium. The universities are not required to put any money into the venture. Whether it will work is open to question. We hope it does, but recently a plan for cooperation between Stanford and UCSF hospitals ended in an expensive failure. My impression is that PharmaStart is an attempt to face the crisis brought about by congressional inquiries into the high price of drugs. Phyllis can tell us.