R-P Chief Calls For Biotech R&D Support

Jean-Rene Fourtou, president of the French chemicals and health carecompany Rhone-Poulenc, has called on the government not to cut off its support for biotechnology R&D suddenly, but to continue to provide stimulus for the efforts of private companies.

Speaking at the culmination of the five-year Bio-Avenir R&D research program, he added that, faced with the explosion of discoveries in biotechnology in health care and agriculture, R-P could not simply meet all the challenges itself. He argued that existing R&D programs should be pursued at the same level as at present, ie with funding of about 1.6 billion French francs ($275 million) a year, of which 600 million francs comes from the government. R-P will continue its contribution to Bio-Avenir by setting up five mixed public and private sector research units.