Essential Medicines News

Andrew Jack, “GSK Varies Prices to Raise Sales,” The Financial Times, 16 March 2008.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has begun a scheme of tiered pricing of its medicines in low- and middle-income countries. The policy is being tested in India, South Africa and Morocco, to ensure the greatest availability of their products, while still recovering R&D costs from those who are able to pay. The GSK test includes both ARVs and Avandia, a medicine for diabetes. GSK’s 2007 Report on Access to Medicines is available in their annual review on corporate responsibility. An excerpt:

We recognise that many middle-income countries need assistance. However, we believe a different approach is needed from the one we take in the world’s poorest countries.

Our offer to supply medicines at not-for-profit prices and vaccines at highly preferential prices in the world’s poorest countries is only sustainable if we can continue to make an adequate return on them in wealthier markets. Many middle-income countries are also growing commercial markets for GSK and represent an important source of future business for our industry. It is forecast that the growing wealth of Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey means they could account for 20 per cent of the global pharmaceutical market by 2020. Our response in these markets must therefore balance our commercial objectives with our global commitment to work with governments and other stakeholders to support efforts to deliver our medicines and vaccines to as many people as possible who need them.

“Scientists Identify New Leads for Treating Parasitic Worm Disease,” Eurekalert, 16 March 2008.

Nature Medicine has published a study showing that oxadiazoles can effectively control schistosomiasis. For the past two decades, praziquatel has been the sole drug used to treat this disease in the 70 tropical nations that require annual or semi-annual drug treatment. The oxadiazole compound inhibits the enzyme, thioredoxin glutathione reductase (TGR), which enables the Schistosoma worms to survive within their host organisms.

Links to the popular press:
Julie Steenhuysen, “New Drug Holds Promise for Parasitic Worm Disease,” Reuters, 16 March 2008.

Deborah MacKenzie, “Drug Victory Could Save Thousands From Deadly Worm,” NewScientist.com, 17 March 2008.

“New Chemical Can Kill Latent Tuberculosis,” Weill Cornell News, 13 March 2008.

A new drug tested by researchers at Weill Cornell inhibits the action of dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase (DlaT), a bacterial enzyme that is used to procure energy from nutrients and defend against oxidative damage. Dr. Carl Nathan, coauthor of the study published in Cell Host and Microbe, explains the importance of their research:

This new approach fights the pathogen in a way that’s different from conventional antibiotics. For what may be the first time, we have found compounds that only kill M. tuberculosis when they are not dividing. This lack of replication is a characteristic of latent bacteria, which are tough to eradicate with existing antibiotics and ultimately play a huge role in the epidemic’s spread.

The study [DOI link] and supplemental materials are freely available online.

“Microbicide Developer Receives License for Novel HIV Microbicide Candidate from Merch & Co., Inc.,” International Partnership for Microbicides Press Release, 11 March 2008.

Merck has agreed to provide a full royalty-free license for L’644, a gp41 fusion inhibitor, to the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) for development as a potential vaginal microbicide for women in developing countries. Delivery methods under consideration are gels, films or vaginal rings. It’s the sixth drug to be tested by IPM in public-private partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies. Others include a CCR5 blocker by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck’s L’167/CMPD167, Pfizer’s maraviroc, Gilead Sciences‘ tenofovir, and Tibotec Pharmaceuticals‘ dapivirine. Dapivirine is expected to enter Phase III clinical trials in 2009.

“Senate Foreign Relations Committee Approves PEPFAR Reauthorization Bill,” Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 14 March 2008.

Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief at a cost of $50 billion over the next five years. No amendments were considered presently for the senate bill introduced by Sen. Biden of Delaware. Of the $50 billion, $4 billion would be allocated to tuberculosis programs and another $5 billion for malaria programs.

“Inhaled Tuberculosis Vaccine More Effective than Traditional Shot in Study Using Experimental Animals,” Harvard School of Public Health Press Release, 12 March 2008.

A study by University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill researchers, Medicine in Need, the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, and Harvard University researchers has been published in the past issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It shows the successful immunization of guinea pigs with the live attenuated tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG). The vaccine was rapidly dried and particles from a nanometer to a micrometer in length are then aerosolized. Scientists are hopeful that this technique will be useful in other bacterial and viral vaccines. Barry R. Bloom, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health:

Tuberculosis is one of the most resistant and challenging diseases to protect against, and the successful results of aerosol delivery using nanoparticle technology offers a potentially new platform for immunization. Were the animal results here confirmed in human studies, this technology could be used not only for TB vaccines, but those protecting against other infectious diseases as well.

“UNC Proofs Inhaled TB Vaccine,” UNC School of Pharmacy News, 14 March 2008.

Tony Hickey, UNC Pharmacy professor in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, and founder of Cirrus Pharmaceuticals and Oriel Therapeutics:

The real advantage is that this vaccine does not need to be refrigerated. It doesn’t require needles, syringes, and water like the injectable, and administering it is as easy as breathing in, making it ideal for use in developing countries.

“Model Identifies Targets for Eradication of Malaria,” Physorg.com, 12 March 2008.

Researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência have published an article at PLoS One showing that malaria eradication is a real possibility in areas with moderate transmission. It also supports the view that mass administration of antimalarial drugs bear an important role in eradication strategies. An excerpt from the paper:

More relevant to malaria control, is the finding of bistable behaviour in regions of mesoendemic transmission, such as Foni Kansala and Sukuta. Bistability is generated by the establishment of longer infections in clinically immune individuals, in comparison to infections in those that are immunologically naïve. This asymmetry, which enhances transmission when endemicities are established, leads to the identification of conditions for sustainable malaria control.

Conditions for eradication and resurgence are simulated in a supplemental appendix.

Ed Harris, “Chinese Researchers Claim Comoros Malaria Success,” Reuters, 11 March 2008.

Artequick, a malarial drug based on the Artemisia shrub, has reduced malaria cases from 23% to 1.4% within 60 days on the Moheli island of Comoros. Four doses were given to the 40,000 people living on the island in November as part of a project led by May Lee of China’s Guangzhou University of Traditional Medicine.

Currently, Artequick is under clinical trials in Cambodia.

Nicholas Zamiska, “Thai Ministry to Recommend Ignoring Patents on Cancer Drugs,” Wall Street Journal, 11 March 2008.

Nopporn Wong-Anan, “Thailand Will Override Cancer Drug Patents,” Reuters, 10 March 2008.

Thailand’s health minister, Chaiya Sasomsap, is urging the government to continue issuing compulsory licenses, in particular for drugs to treat cancer. As such, Novartis has agreed to freely supply Glivec to hundreds of Thai patients in order to preserve their intellectual property rights. Teera Chakajnarodom, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, a trade group in Bangkok, condemned the action: “They should bring back the image of Thailand as a country that respects” intellectual-property rights.

In 2006, compulsory licenses were issued for the AIDS medications, Efavirenz and Aluvia, produced by Merck and Abbott Laboratories, respectively.

“New TB Test Means Quicker and Easier Diagnosis for Patients,” Imperial College London News Release, 7 March 2008.

A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that the ELISpot PLUS blood test can determine whether a patient does not have tuberculosis with 99% accuracy when used in combination with a tuberculin skin test, because it identifies immune cells present due to infection rather than those induced by vaccination. It is less invasive than previous tests and results are available within 2 days.

ELISpot PLUS is not yet licensed commercially.