MEXICAN R&D SPENDING TO RISE SHARPLY IN 2005

Mexican drug industry federation AMIIF expects local investment in R&D to grow 25% this year. The country is in the top ten emerging markets for drug development activity, mainly due to relatively straightforward regulations.

A number of multinational drug firms have increased local investment, with an Anglo-Swedish firm recently allocating about US$50mn to research in Mexico. Meanwhile, Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim is to spend about US$2mn this year.

Nevertheless, these positive numbers indicate that the vast majority of R&D activity in Mexico relates to clinical trial work rather than product development. Major local universities still account for the vast majority of Mexico's discovery work, although GSK's new Rotarix vaccine is something of an exception, as the product was partly developed in Mexico.