Federal Government To Develop Its Own Drugs In Effort to Spur Pharmaceutical Industry
Prozac Pills Prozac (Fluoxetine) pills, one of the most popular prescription drugs on the market. Wikimedia Commons Faced with a diminished drug-development pipeline in the private sector, the Obama administration is starting a federal drug development center, aiming to spur the creation of new medicines. The new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences will get $1 billion in funding to conduct drug research with the goal of attracting private investors. Federal scientists may go so far as to start human trials if necessary, the New York Times reports. Federal officials want the center to open as soon as October. The National Institutes of Health usually focuses on basic research - like describing the structure of proteins, the Times points out. It's up to pharmaceutical companies to translate those structures into drugs. But under the new translational sciences center, the institutes might take discovery a step further, such as testing a new...