NEWS

The Euro: Single Currency Brings Little Change to Cancer Research

Sabine Steimle

New Year's Eve 1998 was a long one for European bankers, but without fancy parties. Instead they worked late into the night to prepare the introduction of the long-awaited single European currency — the Euro. The launching of the new currency on Jan. 1, 1999, can be considered a milestone accomplishment on the rocky road to a monetary union.

Experts say it will have a major impact not only on Europe's economy but also on other policy areas. In the field of biomedical and cancer research, however, no direct effect is anticipated.

"The single currency is unlikely to have much immediate impact on the research environment in Europe," said Peter Kind, acting director in the European Union's Quality of Life research program. As the Euro's primary goal is to create a more stable and larger economic area, however, Kind expects that in the long run research will benefit indirectly from this effect.

In the past, most research grants were awarded in the Euro's predecessor currency, the ECU, and then converted into different national currencies, according to Paul Kleihues, M.D., director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.



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Dr. Paul Kleihues

 
Kleihues thinks the single currency may facilitate cost/benefit evaluations of IARC's multinational research projects with national cancer centers throughout the European Union.

"The costly conversion of [ECU] funds to the different national currencies of our collaborating centers usually slowed down the management of research projects," he said. "I am optimistic that the Euro will improve the flow of research grants and also considerably reduce our administrative burden."

But IARC will not adopt the Euro as budget currency, preferring to stay with the U.S. dollar. "Even though we are located in Europe, our center is part of the World Health Organization and as such is globally oriented with 12 participating countries in Europe and 6 in Asia and the Americas," Kleihues noted. "The U.S. dollar has served us well for more than 30 years and we do not forsee any compelling reasons to change this."

Few Fluctuations

With the Euro, currency fluctuations between EU member states will be eliminated in the future. The long-term result, experts predict, will be more reliable budgeting for cross-border collaborations.

At the research directorate general, the DG 12, of the European Commission — the EU's executive body — the adoption of the Euro is considered business as usual.

Most experts predict that many industries, including the pharmaceutical industry, will benefit from the exchange rate stability in the countries that adopt the Euro (see sidebar). That could stimulate investment and trade — but not necessarily industry-sponsored research in Europe.

"I don't think that the Euro will enormously affect industry research either positively or negatively," said Rolf Krebs, M.D., Ph.D., past president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations, Brussels, and vice president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, Geneva.

"It is rather the lack of harmonization which still hampers and delays research projects at the European level no matter if we are talking about government or industry-sponsored research," Krebs said.

He said that if European biomedical and cancer research were to become more competitive, Europe would need a detailed scientific strategy plan.

"Unfortunately we do not have a research agency such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health that could organize and co-ordinate biomedical research at the European level. As a result, the fragmentation of regulations for basic and clinical research will continue to exist. The real challenge for biomedical and cancer research in Europe is the lack of harmonization — not the Euro," he said.



             
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