U.S. helps tests

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government will help pharmaceutical companies find treatments for a host of diseases in a new project testing 24 experimental drugs provided by manufacturers. The National Institutes of

Health said Thursday Pfizer

Inc., Astrazeneca Plc. and Eli Lilly and Co. have agreed to make the compounds available for the project. Tried on people and found to be safe, the drugs were abandoned because they did not work on the disease they were intended to treat. The NIH will provide $20 million US in grants each year to researchers trying to find new uses for the drugs.