news bites

Student group shines

A student group that wants to widen access to life saving medicines has won backing from scientists, lawyers, public health specialists, and four Nobel laureates for a manifesto to reform the way universities develop and license the discoveries of biomedical research.

The group, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), proposes in its Philadelphia consensus statement that universities should promote equal access to the products of their research, such as drugs and vaccines. It also says they should put research effort into neglected diseases and measure success by the research's impact on human welfare.

The cofounders of the medical justice group Partners in Health and Justice Edwin Cameron, of the South African supreme court, the first high ranking South African leader to disclose that he had HIV, have also said they support the manifesto (www.nature.com).

Crackdown on medical advertising

China has tightened rules on advertisements for medical treatments and procedures in response to complaints from a public fed up with bad taste and bogus claims of wonder drugs.

The ban, to take effect from January, would cover advertising on television, on radio, and in newspapers, the Beijing News …