NIH CRADA reasonable pricing clause removal under "serious discussion," NIH rep tells AIDS task force.

Executive Summary

NIH CRADA REASONABLE PRICING CLAUSE COULD BE DROPPED, NIH officials say. Removal of the pricing clause from CRADA contracts is an option that is "under the most serious discussion at this point" among National Institutes of Health and Public Health Service representatives, NIH Acting Deputy Director for Science Policy & Technology Transfer Sandy Chamblee told the National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development in Bethesda, Md. on Jan. 19. Chamblee noted that at the December meetings of both the PHS Technology Transfer Board and NIH Advisory Board to the Director, participants agreed that the reasonable pricing clause in cooperative research and development agreements "should not be permitted to impede scientific collaboration" and "NIH itself is not a regulatory agency and should not take on a price-setting role."