Archive for the ‘Science & Medical’ Category
Merck Loses Zocor Patent, Cuts Price
“Friday was the day that Merck — and Pfizer — have long dreaded.
Last week, Merck’s cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor lost its United States patent protection, becoming the largest-selling drug yet to be opened to cheap generic competition.
That change will cost Merck billions of dollars a year. But it could be nearly as damaging to Pfizer, whose rival cholesterol drug, Lipitor, is the world’s most popular medicine, with global sales last year of $12 billion. Now insurers are hoping to convince patients and doctors that cheap clones of Zocor will make full-priced Lipitor an unnecessary luxury.
Alex Berenson. Merck Loses Protection for Patent on Zocor. The New York Times. June 23, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
- Lisa Rapaport and Angela Zimm. Merck Prices Zocor Below Generic. WashingtonPost.com. June 23, 2006.
- National Public Radio. Merck to Drop Price as Zocor Patent Lapses. June 23, 3006.
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Kansas Denied Copyright Permission on Evolution Papers
“Two leading science organizations have denied the Kansas board of education permission to use their copyrighted materials in the state’s proposed new science standards because of the standards’ critical approach to evolution.
“The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association said the much-disputed new standards ‘will put the students of Kansas at a competitive disadvantage as they take their place in the world.'”
Jodi Wilgoren. 2 Science Groups Say Kansas Can’t Use Their Evolution Papers. The New York Times. Oct. 27, 2005.
Commentary by K. Matthew Dames, executive editor.
What is interesting to me here is not necessarily the denial of permission (to me that’s more politically motivated than tangibly within the realm of a copyright debate), but why the board felt fair use under Section 107 was not available to it as a limitation on the science organizations’ copyright claimed.
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Google Delays Scanning Project
“Google Inc. has suspended some of its project to place a vast selection of books online, bowing at least temporarily to concerns of publishers who fear scanning material into the world’s most powerful search engine will lead to unauthorized use and duplication of copyrighted material.
“Google launched its test service, Google Print, in October and later started its Google Print Library Project, an attempt to scan books in five libraries to make them searchable online. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google postponed further scanning of copyrighted books until November. Until then, copyright holders can opt out of the scanning by contacting Google directly, the company said.
Yuki Noguchi. Google Delays Book Scanning. WashingtonPost.com. Aug. 13, 2005.
See also:
Margaret Kane. Google Pauses Library Project. News.com. Aug. 12, 2005.
More Publishers Object to Print
Attacks on Google’s Print for Libraries service keep on coming from the nonprofit publishing sector. Now the Association for Learned and Professional Society Publishers, which represents non-profit publishers such as university presses in more than 30 countries, is taking aim.
Google Blog. More Backlash for Google Print. July 15, 2005.
See also:
Association for Learned and Professional Society Publishers. ALPSP Response to Google Print for Libraries Digitisation Project. (.pdf) July 11, 2005.
Oxford University Press Expands Open Access
"The drive to make scientific, medical and academic research more freely available on the internet got a shot in the arm yesterday as Oxford University Press widened its trial of open access publishing.
"In a separate move, a new plan was announced yesterday to digitise thousands of core legal judgments and law reports, making them available free over the web."
Richard Wray. OUP Widens Open Access Trial. Guardian Unlimited. May 6, 2005.
NIH Revises Open Access Plan
"An ambitious proposal to make the results of federally funded medical research available to the public quickly and for free has been scaled back by the National Institutes of Health under pressure from scientific publishers, who argued that the plan would eat into their profits and harm the scientific enterprise they support.
"The initial plan, encouraged by Congress and hailed by patient advocacy groups, called for the results of NIH-funded research to be posted on a publicly accessible Web site within six months after they are published in a scientific journal. Most research results now are available only by subscription to the journal — at a cost that often reaches into the thousands of dollars — or on a pay-per-article basis that can cost $100 or more for two or three articles.
"In the final version of the plan, however, the recommended six-month deadline for posting results has been stretched to a year. That change has angered many advocates of public access, who have argued it isn’t fair that taxpayers must either wait or ante up to see the results of research they have already paid for."
Rick Weiss. NIH Revises Plan for Quick, Free Access to Study Results. WashingtonPost.com. Jan. 18, 2005.
(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)
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PLoS to Launch Additional Open-Access Journals
"The Public Library of Science, a pioneering U.S. non-profit publisher of open access journals, will launch three new journals this year.
"Part of an ambitious plan to transform scientific publishing, PLoS launched PLoS Biology in 2003 and PLoS Medicine in 2004, both with the support of the Gordon and Bettie Moore Foundation. Next up are PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, and PLoS Pathogens.
"PLoS is partnering with the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) to publish PLoS Computational Biology. The journal, now accepting submissions, is scheduled to launch in June 2005. PLoS Genetics, also now accepting submissions, will launch in July 2005. PLoS Pathogens will begin accepting submissions in March 2005 and begin publishing in autumn of 2005."
No author. PLoS to Launch New Journals. Library Journal. Jan. 11, 2005.
See also:
Public Library of Science. Public Library of Science to Launch Additional Open-Access Journals. (Press Release.) Jan. 6, 2005.
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