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Reports on the mixed response of scientists toward new rules designed to combat conflicts of interest at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Limitation of employees' relationships with outside organizations; Impact of the regulation on the NIH efforts to work with pharmaceutical industry in order to translate discoveries into marketable drugs and medical devices; Modification of the relationship between drug companies and scientists.

Focuses on questions about the legality of some common pharmaceutical marketing tactics being raised in courts worldwide. Civil and criminal cases against pharmaceutical companies being pursued by consumer groups and government prosecutors; Charges of fraud brought against GlaxoSmithKline by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer; Guilty plea of Pfizer in Massachusetts for its aggressive promotion of Neurontin; Approval of drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for specific uses, even though anecdotal or scientific evidence suggests wider applications for some drugs.

Focuses on the lawsuit filed against the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, alleging unethical treatment of children involved in a 1996 clinical trial of the company's oral antibiotic drug trovafloxacin in Nigeria. Details of the case; Written statement provided by the company on the law suit.

Reports on the release of a multi-billion plan by doctors, economists and public health specialists in Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts to deliver AIDS drugs to poor people around the world. Concept behind the plan; Attention of media gained by the efforts for the delivery of drugs; Agreement of pharmaceutical companies to cut prices of the drugs; Maintenance of the patents by the drug makers.

Focuses on the Framingham Heart Study related to heart-rate monitoring and genetic screening. Support of the U.S. National Institutes of Health for the study; Efforts of the Boston University to create a company that will package data from the heart study and sell it to pharmaceutical company; Concerns regarding commercialization of the study.