Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Sir Italian scientists must be grateful to _Nature_ and to Alison Abbott for providing an international forum to debate an issue that many

Italians consider ‘an internal affair’ to be handled in the usual byzantine way (_Nature_ 388, 609–610; 1997). I would like to comment on two points concerning the future of biomedicine in

Italy. The question of the future shape and responsibilities of the Higher Institute of Public Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, or ISS) is complex because, as Abbott points out, the

institute is burdened by a number of regulatory duties. It is not opposed in principle to the transfer of these tasks to new _ad hoc_ bodies, similar to the US Food and Drug Administration

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support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * (Director General) Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy Giuseppe Benagiano Authors * Giuseppe Benagiano View author publications

You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Benagiano, G. Italy needs its an NIH of its

own. _Nature_ 389, 224 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38372 Download citation * Issue Date: 18 September 1997 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/38372 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the

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