Science magazine

the market. FDA and its advisers are not per- over 3 weeks—during which their tumors ner at Symphony Capital in New York City. mitted to consider cost in their calculus, but “I didn’t grow. Did FDA ever warn Genen- “There’s been a real evolution, … really don’t believe … for a second” that they ignore tech that this “will not be enough to support a swing away from ‘Give me everything approval?” Schmidt asked. The answer, Paz- you’ve got and I’ll take it’ to … ‘We want The fundamental question remains: Just dur admitted, was no.
better therapies, but we want evidence that how good does a drug have to be to merit Advocates for breast cancer patients are the therapies are working.’ ” approval? Richard Pazdur, who heads divided, demanding both choice in therapy FDA’s office of oncology drug products, and effective treatments. Other groups have narrowed. It plans to appeal to FDA Com- told Genentech that “all we wanted was one experienced the same tension. The acceler- missioner Margaret Hamburg for “a middle single trial to show a clinical benefi t” and ated approval program began in 1992 after ground” resolution, says Genentech spokes- reassure FDA that the early results held up. AIDS patients insisted on faster access to person Krysta Pellegrino, perhaps asking But Paul Schmidt, an attorney for the com- drugs. But that community is now “advo- FDA to restrict Avastin use to the most aggres- pany, countered that Genentech thought it cating for rigorous investigation rather than sive breast cancers. had done that in a trial in which women get- open access to whatever is out there,” says –JENNIFER COUZIN-FRANKEL AND
ting Avastin had 0.8 months more time—just Alastair Wood, a pharmacologist and part- YASMIN OGALE
C H I N A
Foreign Researchers Begin to Make Their Mark
BEIJING—As one of the country’s poorer entists came here because there is ample scientists,” Zhou says.
provinces, Yunnan in southwestern China funding for research and new instruments. has struggled to balance economic develop- Others followed partners to China or say should offer more fellowships and that these ment and conservation. “Few researchers they are curious about the rising power.
in China are equipped with the necessary Whatever their reason for flocking to funds for research materials. CAS should expertise or perspective” to help Yunnan China, foreign fellows have had an impact. also host more top-notch conferences so offi cials craft sound environmental policies, For starters, they have helped catalyze inter- foreigners can become better acquainted says Xu Jianchu, a conservation biologist disciplinary studies that are sorely lacking with Chinese science, says David Yuen, a at the Kunming Institute of Botany of the in China, says Zhou Zhonghe, director of geologist at the University of Minnesota, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). That’s CAS’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology Twin Cities, and a CAS fellow here at the ing to persuade local offi cials to take at Peking University, “these obstacles persuade ethnic Chinese researchers Eco-guru. CAS fellow Edward Grumbine is advising Yunnan Province a gratifying experience. Last year, stationed abroad to return and bolster on environmental policy.
science in their motherland (Science, 31 July 2009, p. 534). Conditions in China and Paleoanthropology here. One example fellowship to study mercury pollution and are improving so quickly, research chiefs say, is Romain Amiot, a foreign postdoc who mitigation policies at CAS’s Institute of Geo- that labs are now wooing top overseas scien- came here in 2006 to reconstruct ancient cli- chemistry in Guiyang. China is responsible tists, no matter their ethnicity. Last month, mates based on evidence gleaned from the for more than a third of all mercury released CAS held a workshop here to assess a pair teeth and bones of dinosaurs. “Nobody had into the environment. “What we do in China of fellowship programs launched in 2009 to used our materials to study past climate,” matters to the rest of the world,” Larssen INE bring non-Chinese scientists to CAS labs. Zhou says. Fellows also spark connections. says. He helped initiate a provincewide sur- UMB Thus far the programs have supported 179 “Behind each fellow is a network of over- vey of mercury pollution and human expo- postdocs and 477 professors, paying annual seas expertise that is valuable for academic sure that he and his Chinese colleagues hope F ED GR O stipends as high as 500,000 yuan ($77,000).
exchange,” Xu says. Some visitors super- to scale up nationwide. For scientists who At the meeting, Grumbine and 69 other vise graduate students, write papers, and are game to take on such challenges, CAS TESYURO foreign researchers on long-term stints edit English-language Chinese journals. has rolled out the red carpet.
hailed the fellowships. China, they say, “This will help to boost language skills –JANE QIU REDIT
offers a number of attractions. Some sci- and educate young generations of Chinese Jane Qiu is a writer in Beijing.
8 JULY 2011 VOL 333 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org

Source: http://www.bic.cas.cn/spxw/201107/P020110711320200979863.pdf