Sir John Sulston says NHS under threat from commercialisation of science

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor The NHS is being damaged by the relentless commercialisation of research, according to one of Britain's most eminent scientists. NHS patients will have right to free medical treatment in Europe Nobel Prize winner Sir John Sulston, who led the British effort to read the human genetic code and is now the acting Chair of the Human Genetics Commission, said the Health Service "is under threat by death from a thousand cuts." Speaking at the launch of a new Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation in Manchester University which he will chair, Sir John said that UK health care is "in quite good shape" because of the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which "are hugely important for giving us affordable medicines. But both those institutions are under threat from... [read full story]