BIOTECHNOLOGY firms in Britain are
extremely sore with the ministry of
health. The statement issued by the
new secretary of state for health,
Stephen Dorrell, criticising the
biotech companies' efforts to
secure special tax treatment, has
broken the morale of the cash-
strapped research organisations
and has left them high and dry.
Dorrell has categorically stated that he is not in favour of tax
shelters for the biotech firms, even
though his ministry officially
sponsors and supports the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology
industries. The department of
health, according to him, should
restrict its funding to "encouraging high
technology investment" in the area.
"This is very discouraging," says
Paul Haycock, deputy chairperson of
the Biotechnology Industry Association.
He says that the tax system discriminates against the industry because of the
time taken, ranging from 5 to 10 years,
to develop a new medicine.
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