Poor countries battle WHO over bird flu
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:04:19 GMTBy ZAKKI HAKIM, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The World Health Organization might guarantee that poor nations get access to bird flu vaccines in the event of a pandemic, the top WHO flu official said Monday, hoping to end a dispute triggered by Indonesia's decision to stop sharing virus samples.
Indonesia — the nation hardest hit by bird flu, with 66 human deaths — is refusing to send samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus to WHO until it stops sharing them with commercial vaccine makers.
The cash-strapped country says the current system is unfair because it cannot afford vaccines produced using its strains.
"The system places developing countries at potential disadvantages in terms of price, access and supply of vaccine," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said at a meeting of global health officials in Jakarta aimed at finding a solution to the standoff. "The rules of the system must be changed."
The country has said in the past that it wants a legally binding agreement that the samples will not be used for commercial purposes, but Supari made no mention of that demand in her opening speech.
Indonesia's decision has received support from some other developing nations, but has alarmed international scientists desperate to check whether the virus is mutating into a more dangerous form.
"All nations have a responsibility to share data and virus samples," U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said in an e-mailed statement that also offered $10 million to WHO to help make sure poor countries have access to vaccines.
"Responding to a pandemic will demand the cooperation of the world community. No nation can go it alone," he said. "If a country is to protect its own people, it must work together with other nations to protect the people of the world."
Dr. David Heymann, WHO's top flu official, said one short-term solution might be "stockpiles of pandemic vaccine in which industry would set aside a percentage of pandemic vaccine for developing country needs, with a guarantee of purchase from WHO."
Later, the body might help Indonesia and other developing countries develop vaccine production facilities themselves, he said.
He said Indonesia's demand that the world body not make virus strains available to commercial vaccine makers was not a solution and would hinder global cooperation in the fight against the virus.
In comments to reporters, Supari did not respond to the possible solution proposed by Heymann, but insisted that the country would not send the samples outside the country if it meant that vaccine makers could access them.
"A collaborating center and vaccine factory could be developed here so there will be no need for the virus to be sent outside the country," she said.
The meeting, attended by health officials from 18 countries, is to end Wednesday.
Bird flu has killed at least 169 people since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003, according to WHO. It remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds. But experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.
To ensure it has access to a bird flu vaccine, Indonesia has reached a tentative agreement with U.S. drug manufacturer Baxter Healthcare Corp. Under the deal, Indonesia would provide the virus in exchange for Baxter's expertise in vaccine production.
Study links child care to poor behavior
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:29:00 GMTBy KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Children who got quality child care before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than did youngsters who received lower quality care.
Also, the more time that children spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behavior.
The findings come from the largest study of child care and development conducted in the United States. The 1,364 children in the analysis had been tracked since birth as part of a study by the http://www.nichd.nih.gov
New drug helps heart failure symptoms
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:53:34 GMTBy MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
NEW ORLEANS - An experimental drug is the first to substantially and safely improve shortness of breath and other symptoms in people hospitalized with severe heart failure, an epidemic that is growing as baby boomers age, doctors reported Sunday.
However, many were disappointed that the drug also did not help people live longer or stay out of the hospital.
"What we really need are therapies that are going to improve the outcome," said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, an http://www.acc.org
Heart failure information: http://www.heartassociation.org
and http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/
Hf/HF_WhatIs.html
Natrecor: http://www.natrecor.com
Study Crestor not as effective as hoped
Sun, 25 Mar 2007 19:13:52 GMTNEW ORLEANS - AstraZeneca PLC's Crestor cholesterol drug slowed thickening in the neck arteries of people at low risk for heart attacks and strokes, but it failed to reverse thickening as researchers had hoped for.
Thickening of arterial walls is a precursor to plaque buildup, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Crestor is approved primarily to reduce levels of bad cholesterol, but AstraZeneca hopes U.S. health regulators will approve expanding the product label to say it can improve atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup.
On its own, the new Crestor study probably won't support the wider use of Crestor and other statins by people at low risk for heart attacks and cardiovascular events. But further studies in this large population could support greater use.
"In our study, the agent not only slowed progression of disease, but also caused the disease to come to a complete halt," John Crouse, a heart specialist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said in an interview at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. Results of the study were presented here Sunday and published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Still, the new study's results weren't as compelling as a Crestor study presented at last year's ACC meeting. That study was in people with signs of heart disease who were at higher risk for future heart attacks and strokes. Crestor partially reversed the buildup of plaque in coronary arteries in these patients.
AstraZeneca has submitted data from both studies to the Food and Drug Administration and expects to hear by the end of the year whether they can support a label change regarding atherosclerosis, said James Blasetto, head of strategic development for Crestor.
Last year's study helped fuel a 60 percent rise in Crestor sales to more than $2 billion for 2006. Crestor and another fast-growing cholesterol drug, Vytorin, have been taking share away from the cholesterol-drug market leader, Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor, which is the best-selling drug in the world with $12.9 billion in sales last year. Vytorin is marketed by a joint venture of Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. The companies are in fierce competition to show new clinical data demonstrating the superiority of their respective products.
The new Crestor study, nicknamed Meteor and funded by AstraZeneca, tested a high dose of the drug in people at relatively low risk for coronary heart disease, but who had some thickening in the carotid artery as measured by ultrasound imaging. Doctors typically don't prescribe statins for such low-risk patients.
The 984 participants took either Crestor or a fake drug and underwent follow-up ultrasounds to determine changes in the thickness of the wall of their carotid arteries. Patients were followed for about two years.
In those on a placebo, the carotid artery wall thickened by about 0.013 millimeters per year. There was a decrease of 0.0014 millimeters in the Crestor group, but statistically it wasn't enough to demonstrate regression. However, the difference in growth between the Crestor and placebo groups was enough to demonstrate that Crestor significantly slowed progression.
The study also found Crestor was associated with a 49 percent reduction in bad cholesterol, or LDL, and an 8 percent increase in good cholesterol, or HDL.
The most common side effects in the study included muscle pain and back pain, but the rates of these events weren't significantly different between the Crestor and placebo groups.
To date there have been no data proving Crestor can reduce the incidence of deaths, heart attacks and other cardiovascular events. AstraZeneca is currently conducting trials to determine this.
