CSL looks inwards for the best medicine HEALTHCARE giant CSL appears to be staking its growth prospects on its internal pipeline of projects rather than acquisitions, as it beefs up its research and development budget to record levels. The Melbourne-based company, which yesterday reported a 19 per cent rise in profit to $US1.22 billion ($1.34bn) for the past financial year, plans to increase its R&D spending by 13 per cent to $US480 million as a range of new products aimed at life-threatening medical conditions advance towards the latter stages of clinical trials.