Czech scientists from the Biological Centre of the Czech Academy of Science, based in Ceske Budejovice, in cooperation with Brno Research Institute of Veterinary Medicine and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague found a substance that could halt zika virus, the ihned.cz server informed. Read more details in English here. An interview on DVTV with parasitologist Luděk Eyrer, one of the experts behind the success, is available here (in Czech).

According to reserach results published by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry and associations, funding of healthcare research and development  in the Czech Republic is below the EU average. The reason behind could be too big risks connected with health care R&D investments, says Michal Votruba, RSJ Life Sciences Director in an interview on Radio Zet. On the other hand, these investments have the potential of high return. Czech health care system could be revived by private funding. 

There is always risk involved in any research, but even failure or negative research results can play a major role in the research process, says Martin Bunček, Deputy Director of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR) in an interview on the Czech Radio Plus. In high-risk research, it is common that 10-25% of projects simply fail, but the Technology Agency works within a set of rules that demand results from entities who were granted public money, he adds.

Read also an article published by the euro.cz server on company in-house R&D and what does it look like in the Czech Republic (most of it is carried out by foriegn-owned companies). Is it a plus or a minus (or both)?