The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7329 p843
11 December 2004

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

AstraZeneca executive to chair science forum

AstraZeneca’s chief executive Sir Tom McKillop is to chair a new science forum announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in his pre-budget statement to the House of Commons last week.

The forum will aim to increase company investment in research and development. To encourage R&D, the Chancellor announced that he would re-examine the R&D tax credit for medium-sized science-based firms.

Philip Wright, director of science and technology at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: “We are delighted to hear that the Government has recognised the R&D tax credit gap for growing biopharmaceutical companies and that it is going to see how best it can help the mid-sized firms that are often lagging behind their US counterparts.”

The ABPI aslo welcomed the new forum.