A short three months ago I wrote a blog about R&D leads in treating Ebola virus disease (EVD) with vaccines and therapeutics included in the Ebola pipeline. The piece was sceptical about what could be achieved in the pace of product development, clinical trials and commercialization solutions for the emergency in West Africa. Read more
The world has its eyes on West Africa and the UN World Health Organization has declared the spread of the Ebola virus in West African states an international health emergency. The Ebola virus, a single-strand RNA filovirus and only 19 kilobase pairs long, has claimed 1,000+ lives in West Africa this year (out of about 2,000 cases). The virus causes fever, central nervous system damage and impaired blood clotting. The virus is highly contagious (through bodily fluids) and there is no known medical intervention approved for treatment other than rest and oral rehydration. Read more
This post isn’t so much about biotech or even health as it is research overall, but stick with me, as I introduce a research base very few ever think of… … Read more
Over the past week, we have seen extended press coverage of the principles of a potential cancer ‘megafund,’ building on ideas from the October 2012 Nature Biotechnology article by Fernandez, Stein & Lo on “Commercialization biomedical research through securitization techniques.” The Economist covered it here and the Financial Times added its commentary here. Read more
Over the past one year, I have completed a series of blog posts on this platform relating to tuberculosis – a (mostly) curable infectious diseases that still claims approximately 1.8 million lives per annum. The articles have focused on how ‘push’ and ‘pull’ incentives can accelerate research and development for new TB vaccines, TB drugs, TB diagnostics and improved TB care delivery methods to those living at the lowest rungs of the global economic ladder. A conference was hosted to bring together strands of innovation, access and investment from across disciplines to overcome financial, political and systemic barriers of fighting tuberculosis effectively. Read more
At the end of 2012, the US Food & Drug Administration approved Sirturo, also known as bedaquiline as a viable treatment option for patients with drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. This was an important announcement for the TB drugs community as the last drug with a new mechanism of action approved for TB was rifampicin in 1963. Innovation in tuberculosis drugs and antibiotics in general, since then, has languished. Read more
For many of us working in the life sciences and passionate about the biotechnology sector, our motivation often stems from the power of medicine to help people. Somewhere on the career path, one may have thought about the doctor route. For me personally, the potential there ended in high-school with an aversion to blood and sensitivity to bearing bad news to patients. Read more
On April 19-20, 2012 the first Global Health Commercialization & Funding Roundtable was held at the University of Cambridge, UK. The Roundtable brought together global health entrepreneurs (from both developed and developing countries), investors/funders, civil society, member state representatives and academia to explore business models in discovery, development and delivery of global health innovations. The idea for this Roundtable stemmed from the desire to match global health conversations in innovation and access with the resource providers (investors/funders) who invest in innovation development from R&D to delivery. Read more
Infection by the TB infectious agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis can exist within the human body as a contained latent infection, active disease, or be eradicated by the host immunological response. TB diagnostics are required to categorize a patient into one of these categories. However, case detection remains difficult today due to inaccurate diagnostic methods and confounding factors such as HIV infection, immunosuppressive therapies, anti-tuberculosis treatments, drug-resistant TB bacteria strains and poorly understood other factors[1]. Modern-day TB diagnostic tools in developed countries are neither appropriate nor affordable for resource-poor environments. National TB programs in disease-endemic countries still rely on older and inaccurate methods for confirming TB in patients. Without correct diagnosis of a patient’s condition, there is lower probability that appropriate medical treatment will be provided and effect a cure of the disease. Read more
In 1908 Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin developed the first tuberculosis vaccine. The BCG vaccine is routinely given to infants in many parts of the world today, and is inexpensive — between US 10 cents and 20 cents per dose. However, it has not changed much since the early 20th century and is unreliable in protecting against adult forms of pulmonary TB[1]. Unfortunately, its effectiveness is complicated by the presence of HIV, and TB still causes 5000 deaths per day. Read more
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