Entries by Michael Kuhrt

Patents dancing in the spring

All the hard work I invested in 2012 to rescue the Eurozone with biotechnology has reaped a new reward in 2013, as the European Parliament and Council finally approved the European patent in December.

Why biotech needs Europe and Europe needs biotech

It’s getting a little boring listening to conversations about the 2014-2020 budget. As citizens, we’re subjected to endless national bickering and point-scoring as national leaders look to secure their own positions through sounding ‘tough on Europe’, as if the EU was a strange alien beast designed to steal their money and straighten all their bananas.

When scientists have to strike at their own

We all read with dismay but not a huge amount of surprise the October paper from French researchers led by Gilles-Eric Séralini on the two-year rat-feeding study looking at the effects of glyphosate-treated GM maize.

When science makes you smile

Hello readers! You know, when you view the biotechnology landscape from a Brussels perspective, you can very easily get stuck looking at the bad bits meddling politicians, poor science reporting, insane funding decisions. Goodness knows I have had to solve the euro crisis already this year, and most months I have something or other to moan about.

Andrea Rappagliosi: Challenges and answers: HTA in the economic crisis

During the last thirty years, healthcare expenditure has been growing much more rapidly than GDP in OECD countries, causing increasing concerns about the long-term sustainability of current trends. As we have seen with the global impact of the financial crisis, economic realities are moving faster than political ones.