Wall Street Journal - July 24, 2003
Mark Ingebretsen

Yet in the world of research and academic publishing, free access is often the exception rather than the rule.

The Chicago Tribune reported that "Most journals charge readership fees ranging from $10 per article to $290 for a yearlong Internet subscription."

And as a result, some scientists, having grown "Frustrated that taxpayers often do not have access to the results of research they paid for ... are launching on-line journals that will be available to the public for free," the article said.

In fact, the public-access movement could change forever the way research and academic information gets disseminated.

Last fall, for example, MIT debuted its OpenCourseWare program, announcing that it would offer the school's "course materials used in almost all undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world," according to a statement.

And in June, the Scientist reported on a measure by Rep. Martin Sabo (D., Minn.), called the Public Access to Science Act: The bill would deny "copyright protection for any works stemming from substantially federally funded research," according to the article.

The Scientist noted that Rep. Sabo's bill "is one part of a larger campaign, launched by the open-access Public Library of Science (PLoS), to raise a national debate on the issue."

And according to an article from the New York Times, PloS "will begin publishing an online, peer-reviewed journal on biology in October, followed by a medical science journal early next year. Access to the journals will be free, and the operating expenses will be financed by $1,500 fees charged to researchers whose papers appear."

Indeed, according to the group's Web site, for open access to work, "a new business model for scientific publishing is required that treats the costs of publication as the final integral step of the funding of a research project."

Reimportation Revisited

In a small example of how Byzantine the political maneuverings in Washington can get, the Medicare overhaul legislation currently being hammered out in Congress may indirectly allow Americans to import less expensive drugs from Canada and Europe.

As the New York Times reported, some House Republicans are behind a bill allowing the import of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere.

Drugs tend to be cheaper in Canada due to government price controls north of the border. And while reimporting Canadian drugs back into the U.S. is technically illegal, many Americans -- or more precisely many American seniors -- regularly order millions of dollars of drugs from Canadian distributors via the Internet and other means.

The House bill would make such practices legal, the Times noted, and while the Republican leadership in the House doesn't support the bill, supporters did garner a promise from the leadership not to interfere with the bill in exchange for their support of Medicare overhaul.

As the Washington Post explained it: Needing just one vote to pass the Medicare Prescription Drug bill, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) struck a deal with Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R., Mo.) as the roll call approached last month. "Well past 2 a.m., the two Republicans reached an accord. Emerson would vote aye, so long as Hastert's leadership team agreed to allow a floor vote this month on whether to legalize the reimportation of U.S.-made prescription drugs." Indeed, last-minute deals of this sort are common in Congress, but they've seldom "triggered the type of battle that has led to ... [Thursday's] expected vote" on the reimportation measure, the Post said.

The House Republican support for the bill represents a sea change of sorts, according to the Times. Over the years, "many Republicans ... have been inclined to accept the industry's arguments that imported drugs pose a safety risk and that higher prices in the United States are necessary so drug manufacturers can funnel the profits back into research," the article said.

However, many Americans continue to buy foreign prescription drugs via the Internet with little evidence of harm, the newspaper said.

And while some supporters of the House bill predict a very close vote, if the measure does succeed it will become part of the negotiations between the House and Senate over efforts to reconcile Medicare's prescription drug benefit, the Times said.

Cancer Genes Identified

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have documented 57 genes that appear to be "involved in the growth of human tumor cells. Some of these genes appear to be linked with the growth of cancerous cells only -- not healthy cells -- making them possible targets for new drugs that could halt the spread of disease without necessarily compromising normal processes," according to Ascribe Newswire.

INDUSTRY VITALS

* Some college students are reportedly abusing Ritalin, a drug often prescribed to treat younger children and others with attention deficit disorder. The students use Ritalin ward off sleep while studying or attending raves, according to CBS.

* "The Middle East is coping with an unexpectedly sharp increase in the number of AIDS cases," according to World Tribune.com.

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