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Food for Thought: BioCentury goes TV; Mike Ward leaves

Mike Ward, long-time European Editor of BioCentury, has left the trade publication to take up a new position at Scrip, where he will head a small team that will focus on European companies, funds and regulatory issues. At present, there is no successor at BioCentury.

While the closing of the Oxford office is likely to weaken the position of BioCentury in Europe, the publication will start a policy talk show on Washington’s WUSA channel. The “BioCentury This Week” show will air every Sunday from 8:30-9:00am on Channel 9 in the Washington, DC, area and on Channel 25 Fox Boston. It will be hosted by Eric Pierce, Publisher and Steve Usdin, Senior Editor. The focus is on key issues affecting the science, business and social impact of biotechnology and in particular will feature the perspective of biotechnology policy makers. For a global audience, the show will also be streamed every Sunday from 9:00 am from the new BioCentury This Week website and will be archived thereafter for later viewing.

The first broadcast will deal with risks and benefits of drug safety measures; guests include Robert Temple, FDA’s Deputy Director for Clinical Science, Bill Vaughan, Senior Health Policy Analyst, Consumers Union, Marc Boutin, Executive Vice president and Chief Operating Officer, National Health Council, Tim Coetzee, President and Executive Director of Fast Forward, Affiliate of National MS Society, and Rep. Bart Stupak (Democrats, Mich.), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations.