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its membership – one of them contributed to the withdrawal of the arthritis drug Vioxx. With this track record, and the option to bank on some degree of community spirit among its membership, Kaiser Permanente may find it easier to gain the trust of the target population than the UK Biobank did. They also may want to find a different name for the project, for who would trust a bank these days? Michael Gross is a science writer based at Oxford. He can be contacted via his web page at www.michaelgross.co.uk