High prices of supplies drain cash from poorer nations' labs

摘要

While researchers in the West bemoan budget cuts and funding constraints, their colleagues outside this wealthy enclave are struggling to pay frequently inflated prices for lab equipment and materials. Scientists in these poorer countries have to pay up to 70% more than their wealthier colleagues for identical supplies, a survey by Nature has revealed. In Poland, for example, researchers pay two-thirds more for an EPS 601 power supply for gel separation manufactured by Amer-sham Biosciences than their neighbours over the border in Germany (see Table). And in Brazil, a kilogram of yeast extract produced by Sigma-Aldrich of St Louis, Missouri, costs at least US$340 ― 70% more than the price listed in the United States.