New York Times by Keith Bradsher:

Hong Kong will establish a regional medical surveillance and research center to study SARS and spot future illnesses before they can turn into epidemics, and will ask the neighboring Guangdong Province to cooperate, Hong Kong's leader announced today.

Tung Chee-hwa, the chief executive, said he would ask the Legislative Council for $64 million for research into infectious diseases.

9:32:04 AM    

New York Times by Andrew Pollack:

Sales of an antiviral drug produced by a small biotechnology company are surging because doctors in China are using it in an attempt to contain the widening outbreak of SARS, company officials said yesterday.

The company, SciClone Pharmaceuticals of San Mateo, Calif., is expected to announce today that sales of its drug, Zadaxin, are likely to triple this quarter, to $15 million.

Zadaxin is approved in China to treat hepatitis B, though it is not approved for use in the United States, Europe or Japan.

9:20:29 AM