tion. Equally important, a standard test would provide some means of plotting environmental water quali ty on a worldwide basis." The Pacific Basin flavor of the congress extended to the scientific sessions both in the makeup of the participants and the topics discussed. For instance, at a symposium on folk medicine and its scientific basis, natural products chemists from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and New Zealand described research on extracting, isolating, and character izing pharmacologically active sub stances from plants used in the tra ditional medical practices of those countries. Of particular note d u r i n g the symposium, Eric Block, chemistry professor at State University of New York, Albany, described research on compounds derived from garlic. Block and his coworkers were moti vated by the widespread folk belief that, among its other pharmacologi cal properties, garlic offers protec tion against stroke, coronary throm bosis, and atherosclerosis. The re searchers succeeded in isolating a sulfur-containing compound from garlic preparations that they call ajoene. The compound is about as effective as aspirin at inhibiting platelet aggregation, one of the first steps in the clotting mechanism. D
Biogen chairman Gilbert steps down Walter Gilbert, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in recombinant DNA and was one of the first aca demics to turn the new biotechnolo gy into a business, resigned his post as chairman and chief executive of ficer of Biogen N.V. last week. The resignation, which caught many by surprise, comes at the end of a year in which the genetic engi n e e r i n g firm's losses increased sharply. For the first nine months of 1984, Biogen reported losses of $10.9 million, nearly double the $5.7 million lost during the same period the year before. Earlier this fall, the company cut 56 positions, or 13% of its total workforce, from its Geneva, Switzerland, and Cambridge, Mass.,
staffs in an effort to control expenses (C&EN, Dec. 17, page 17). "This is an appropriate time for me to step aside and for Biogen to seek fresh management/ 7 Gilbert said. Biogen stated that Gilbert, 53, was not forced out by directors or the firm's major shareholders, a group that includes Monsanto (12%), Scher ing-Plough (12%), and Inco (18%). H e will retain his seat on the company's board of supervisory di rectors and scientific advisory board. Mark Skaletsky, 36, principal op erating officer, was named acting chief executive. Biogen's board meets in January, at which time a
permanent successor to Gilbert prob ably will be named. In a period in which most bio technology stocks have been per forming poorly and products have been approaching commercialization more slowly than once hoped, many of the biotechnology-based compa nies that were founded by scien tists over the past several years have been bringing in managers with business experience (C&EN, June 18, page 10). That may well have been the case at Biogen, which has been criticized by investment analysts for operating more like a university re search laboratory than a business. D
Bhopal: cleanup progresses, new rules in offing About 15 tons of methyl isocyanate remaining in Union Carbide of India's Bhopal plant was converted into finished pesticide product last week. The work was done under the supervision of Indian scientists by plant workers, with the assis tance of a Union Carbide technical team from the U.S. The methyl isocyanate that was processed came from a storage tank not involved in the Dec. 3 disaster. Work now will begin on opening and examining the tank that was involved in the accident to try and determine its cause. Last week also saw the arrival in Bhopal of Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D.-N.Y.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asian & Pacific Affairs (C&EN, Dec. 17, page 8), on a fact-finding mission. Solarz said that he wanted to determine not only who is responsible for this tragedy, but what the U.S. govern ment can do to prevent such acci dents. He intends to introduce legisla tion that would require U.S. compa nies to adhere to U.S. health, safety, and environmental standards no matter where their operations are
No Dec. 31 issue Chemical & Engineering News will not publish an issue on Dec. 3 1 , 1984. The editors wish all our readers a very happy holiday season. Our next issue will be Jan. 7, 1985.
located. Solarz also wants the com panies to have to tell foreign gov e r n m e n t s about any potentially harmful effects of substances being produced in their countries. One knowledgeable industry observer expects that Solarz's initiatives will be only one part of a general Con gressional push to insert tough, new provisions in several environmen tal laws that are up for renewal next year (for more on Bhopal and possi ble policy changes, see page 19). Meanwhile, the National Trans portation Safety Board is urging the Department of Transportation to give priority attention to re-examin ing its hazard identification and clas sification system. The board says, "It is difficult to accept the fact that a material, whose primary hazard as classified by DOT is its flammability, would cause such widespread death due to its toxicity." Under current rules, the board says, meth yl isocyanate could be shipped by rail in the least protected DOT speci fication tankcars. The only reason it isn't, the board adds, is that Carbide, sole U.S. supplier of the chemical, re quires much higher safety standards for such shipments than DOT does. The board concludes: "Many ques tions now unanswered by DOT's hazard identification and classifica tion system must be answered to determine which flammable liquids. Class Β poisons, corrosives, and oth er materials can pose life-threaten ing hazards during accident condi tions as we now know MIC can." D December 24, 1984 C&EN
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