Btech News - D.C. BEAT - The Week's Biotech Related News from Capitol Hill (28/1/02)

Bush's 2003 Budget Proposal Boosts 16% Increase in the NIH Budget

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that the Bush administration's 2003 budget will boost the NIH's budget by $3.7 billion to $27.3 billion. $1.5 billion of the budget will be earmarked for research on bioterrorism prevention and response. The proposed budget also includes $5.5 billion for cancer research, a 13% increase over the 2002 budget. Bush's budget proposal will result in a doubling of the NIH's budget since 1998.
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Senate Holds Hearing on Cloning Ban

Human cloning is likely to be the hot, controversial biotechnology issue in the Senate this spring. The House of Representative passed a bill in the fall that bans the use of cloning techniques both to produce a human being (reproductive cloning) and to produce stem cells that have the potential to treat a variety of major diseases (therapeutic cloning). The House bill is backed by the Bush administration. The Senate will debate a similar bill as well as two bills that would ban reproductive cloning but not therapeutic cloning.

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee Labor, Health, and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee began hearings on human cloning. In the hearings, the Subcommittee Chairperson, Senator Harkin (D-Iowa), and ranking member, Senator Spector (R-Pa) voiced support for a ban on reproductive cloning. However, both senators also voiced opposition to a law that would ban therapeutic cloning, stating that it would stop vital medical research. In fact, Senator Spector stated that the term therapeutic cloning was inaccurate, and that he would now use the term nuclear transplantation.
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Medicare to Cover Glaucoma Screening

Medicare will start reimbursing for annual dilated eye examinations to detect glaucoma for Medicare beneficiaries who are at a high risk for glaucoma. Improved early glaucoma detection would benefit sales of many intraocular pressure-lowering agents, including Pharmacia's (NYSE: PHA) Xalacom (latanoprost and timolol) and Xalatan (latanaprost) and Par's (a subsidiary of Pharmaceutical Resources, Inc., NYSE: PRX) generic latanoprost when its ANDA is accepted, but especially two new agents rapidly developing clinical acceptance - Allergan's (NYSE: AGN) Lumigan (bimatoprost) and Alcon 's Travatan (travoprost).

BTECH NEWS
by Leon Henderson, M.D.
Bennett Weintraub, Ph.D.
Christopher Martin
www.btechnews.com
January 28, 2002

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BTECH NEWS, published by Btech Investor, Inc., highlights selected events in the life sciences sector that the Btech Investor team believes are particularly relevant to biotechnology investors. The Btech Investor team combines scientific, clinical, and business experience to perform comprehensive analysis of the biotechnology industry and to identify future industry leaders.

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