compiled by Bruce Wainwright and Martin Flynn
The International Space Station will be used this month as part of the Russian search for a vaccine against Aids.
Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov told reporters at the Star City space centre near Moscow, that they will study proteins that may be used in a potential vaccine. Capsules containing the proteins will be installed on board the space station and later analysed back on earth.
Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao blast off on 11 October to replace the previous crew on the space station, who have been orbiting earth since 21 April.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is withdrawing approval of three generic HIV drugs manufactured by an Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer.
The move follows claims by western drug manufacturers and US government officials that generic Aids drugs do not have the same quality standards as the more expensive patented products.
A popular triple combination anti-HIV pill produced by Rambaxy Laboratories called Triviro provides a cheap and convenient first line treatment alternative to expensive patent medicines.
But the WHO claims the drugs have not been proved to be of the same ‘bio-equivalence’ as patented drugs. The amount of active ingredient, the dosage form, and the strength should be identical to those of a comparable brand, they say. Amit Sengupta, a medical expert with the Delhi Science Forum, questioned why the WHO had
opened speculation on quality.
“Going by past record, it is quite possible the world body has come under pressure from the western pharmaceutical giants.”The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa has called for the resignation of WHO director Dr Jong-Wook Lee, accusing him of being a tool of the big pharmaceutical companies.And the activists point out that 70 per cent plus of the top-selling drugs worldwide were not ‘discovered’ or even researched and developed by the large pharmacos which now own them and sell them at high prices under strict patent laws and licenses.
But the WHO says that its target was not the generic combinations themselves, but the contract research organizations hired by the Indian manufacturers and their questionable standards.
A similar withdrawal of WHO approval was applied recently to Cipla’s triple combination therapy Triomune but the company was later able to show that its products met WHO bio-equivalence standards
Donor countries have given only half the amount originally pledged to a UN drive for global access to reproductive health by 2015.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) launched the plan ten years ago as a key measure to empower women, ensure human rights, reduce poverty, protect the environment and foster sustainable development.
Now at the midway point, the UN have taken stock and found contributions are falling short.
Current donations total $3.1 billion rather than the $6.1 billion originally pledged, with only five donor countries giving 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product.
And worryingly, support for condoms over the last decade has actually declined, even though demand is expected to rise by 40 per cent over the next decade.
More than “declaration of good intentions” were needed to realise Millennium Development Goals that seek to halve extreme poverty and stem new HIV infections over the next ten years, it said.
Speaking at a press conference in London, UNPFA executive director Dr Thoraya Ahmed Obaid (pictured), said: “Whilst the Cairo agreement brought sexual and reproductive health into the public domain, many reproductive health areas have been slow to integrate HIV into reproductive health services and, unless international assistance rises to the level agreed, the AIDS pandemic will continue to expand and wreak havoc.”
And at this year’s Labour Party conference, the Irish Rock Star Bono urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to ‘finish what he had started’ and relieve global debt and deal with global HIV.
Robert Fieldhouse.
An Irish priest who was the first person in Africa be injected with a potential Aids vaccine has won an award.
Fr Kieran Creagh, from Belfast, was made the Irish International Person of the Year at a ceremony in Dublin last month.
Father Creagh, who has been working at a hospice in Durban, was injected with a trial vaccine in 2000 which tricks the body into thinking it has HIV and, it is hoped, will respond with the right antibodies.
“I am humbled. I feel very privileged and honoured,” the priest said: “We have the population of Ireland - five million people - currently living with HIV and Aids in South Africa.”
