Sorry we haven't been posting anything for the past few weeks. Blogging requires a degree of discipline that I have yet to develop. We'll try to be a bit more disciplined, though, as there's always interesting stuff happening that it's worthy of comment.

This time is Europe's decision to launch the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a joint effort of the European Union and big pharma to inject cash into Europe's biopharmaceutical industry.

The Initiative correctly stated that investment in Europe has lagged behind what the Americans spend in research and development, and the growth of the industry is nowhere near what you see in countries like China. Part of the solution is to increase investment, sure. But, as we stated in our February Editorial, one wonders if the kind of projects they intend to fund -- which they call "pre-competitive research" (research aimed not at directly developing a drug, but at generating tools that speed up the drug discovery process) will be all that helpful to the biopharmaceutical sector.

In addition to this question, there are other points that may be problematic as the IMI moves forward -- questions about funding, intellectual property and bureaucracy, some of which we discussed in the Editorial. As we wrote there, more money is always a good idea but, when it comes to the actual implementation of the IMI, the devil will be in the details.