Drug maker Novartis loses India patent battle

NEW DELHI (AP) ? India's Supreme Court on Monday rejected drug maker Novartis AG's attempt to patent an updated version of a cancer drug in a landmark decision that health activists say ensures poor patients around the world will get continued access to cheap versions of lifesaving medicines.

Novartis had argued that it needed a patent to protect its investment in the cancer drug Glivec while activists said the drug did not merit intellectual property protection in India because it was not a new medicine.

The court's decision has global significance since India's $26 billion generic drug industry, which supplies much of the cheap medicine used in the developing world, could be stunted if Indian law allowed global drug companies to extend the lifespan of patents by making minor changes to medicines.

Once a drug's patent expires, generic manufacturers can legally produce it. They are able to make drugs at a fraction of the original manufacturer's cost because they don't carry out the expensive research and development.

Pratibha Singh, a lawyer for the Indian generic drug manufacturer Cipla, which makes a version of Glivec for less than a tenth of the original drug's selling price, said the court ruled that a patent could only be given to a new drug, and not to those which are only slightly different from the original.

"Patents will be given only for genuine inventions, and repetitive patents will not be given for minor tweaks to an existing drug," Singh told reporters outside the court.

Novartis called the ruling a "setback for patients," and said patent protection is crucial to fostering investment in research to develop new and better drugs.

"We brought this case because we strongly believe patents safeguard innovation and encourage medical progress," said Ranjit Shahani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Novartis India.

The ruling "will hinder medical progress for diseases without effective treatment options," he said.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant has fought a legal battle in India since 2006 to patent a new version of Glivec, which is mainly used to treat leukemia and is known as Gleevec outside India and Europe. The earlier version of Glivec did not have an Indian patent because it was introduced into the country before the government adopted its first patent law in 2005. Novartis said Glivec is patented in nearly 40 other countries.

India's patent office rejected the company's patent application, arguing the drug was not a new medicine but an amended version of its earlier product. The patent authority cited a provision in the 2005 patent law aimed at preventing companies from getting fresh patents for making only minor changes to existing medicines ? a practice known as "evergreening."

Novartis appealed, arguing the drug was a more easily absorbed version of Glivec and that it qualified for a patent.

Anand Grover, a lawyer for the Cancer Patients Aid Association, which led the legal fight against Novartis, said the ruling Monday prevented the watering down of India's patent laws.

"This is a very good day for cancer patients. It's the news we have been waiting for for seven long years," he said.

Aid groups, including Medicins Sans Frontieres, have opposed Novartis' case, fearing that a victory for the Swiss drugmaker would limit access to important medicines for millions of poor people around the world.

Glivec, used in treating chronic myeloid leukemia and some other cancers, costs about $2,600 a month. Its generic version was available in India for around $175 per month.

"The difference in price was huge. The generic version makes it affordable to so many more poor people, not just in India, but across the world," said Y.K. Sapru, of the Mumbai-based cancer patients association.

"For cancer sufferers, this ruling will mean the difference between life and death. Because the price at which it was available, and considering it's the only lifesaving drug for chronic myeloid cancer patients, this decision will make a huge difference," Sapru said.

Leena Menghaney of Medicins Sans Frontieres said India would continue to grant patents on new medicines.

"This doesn't mean that no patents will be granted. Patents will continue to be granted by India, but definitely the abusive practice of getting many patents on one drug will be stopped," Menghaney said.

The judgment would ensure that the prices of lifesaving drugs would come down as many more companies would produce generic versions.

"We've seen this happening with HIV medicines, where the cost of HIV treatment has come down from $10,000 to $150 per year. Cancer treatment costs have come down by 97 percent in the case of many cancer drugs," she said.

"This decision is incredibly important. The Supreme Court decision will save a lot of lives in the coming decades," Menghaney said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/drug-maker-novartis-loses-india-patent-battle-092200333--finance.html

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Riding in style: The evolution of the popemobile

Alessandro Di Meo / EPA

Images of the automobiles that have transported popes over the years.

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

Comes outfitted in protective bullet-proof glass. Draws a crowd wherever it goes. A driver is included; gold trim is optional.

Popemobiles also include such amenities as a handrail to let the pope easily stand and wave while in motion, a built-in stereo and arctic-cool air conditioning.

Eight popes have had their own set of holy wheels since Pope Pius XI got a stretch 460 Nurburg edition Mercedes-Benz in 1930, but the eighth, Pope Francis -- known for?taking the bus to work?before he was named pope -- may not want all the frills and custom built-ins that popemobiles offer.?

By retiring, Benedict XVI has passed along a white armored Mercedes SUV, which has a white leather interior with gold trim and a white leather turret that can be raised by hydraulic lift high enough for crowds to see the pope, if he wants to sit. (For longer trips around Italy, Benedict enjoyed his own helicopter.) Bullet-proof?Plexiglas?that's strong enough to withstand explosions surrounds the turret on three sides. There's an emergency oxygen supply built in, according to?The Telegraph.?

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"The pope must feel comfortable. People must be able to see him. People have traveled very far; they want to be able to get a good look at him," said Christoph Horn, Director of Global Communications of Mercedes-Benz, from Stuttgart, Germany. "This is about creating a comfortable and safe environment for the pope to travel in and be seen in.?

The pre-mobile
Popes didn't have to wait for the invention of automobiles to be mobile. For centuries, popes traveled by throne when going out on local outings. The popes were carried by 12 bearers (representing the 12 disciples of the church) as they moved through crowds, Ronald Rychlak, a University of Mississippi law school professor who has written numerous books on religion,?said.

Daimler

The first car used by a pope.

All that changed when Pope Pius XI got his Benz. The limousine was a gift from the car company, which would provide vehicles for many popes after that.

"Usually more than one vehicle was provided, especially for the popes in the 1930s," Horn said. "They were traveling a lot, so many popemobiles were built for them."

Back then, popes traveled in limousines with open tops, he said. Over the years, more than 12 different models of cars and trucks would be provided for popes. Pope John XXIII ushered in a new era of pope cars in 1960 with a Mercedes 300D Landaulet, which had a throne that rose high in the back, The New York Times reported. His successor switched to a 1964 Lincoln model before he went back to the preferred Mercedes brand a year later.

But don't call it 'popemobile'
When popes travel abroad for state visits, it's not always possible for the vehicles they use at home to make the journey with them. Instead, customized cars are prepared ahead of the visit, submitted for Vatican approval from the country he will visit.

"The primary level of security is assigned to the host nation,"?Rychlak said. "If they want to have something like a popemobile for a major parade, let's say they're doing Mass at Yankee stadium or something like that, they would have to make arrangements to ship something over, or that's the kind of situation where there may be a gift made to the pope" by a major car company.

That was how the car that officially became known for the first time as the "popemobile" came into existence: Pope John Paul II had visited Ireland in 1979, and a boxy yellow Ford Transit van awaited him as his chariot. Last November, The Telegraph reported an Irish businessman had acquired the van from the Dublin Wax Museum, where it had been since the papal visit, and was transforming it into a party bus.

Many other popemobiles have stayed in the countries they were used in. In 2008, Newsweek got a peek at the popemobile Benedict used for his U.S. tour, describing it as "by far the fanciest and sleekest papal car ever built ... The papal handlers can shift their passenger from zero to 60 in less than eight seconds, but the drivers probably won't exceed 10 mph along the parade routes."

In 2002, John Paul II asked the media to stop using the term "popemobile," insisting it sounded "undignified."

A clear need for better security
John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in 1981 while in St. Peter's Square. A Turkish man was later convicted of firing the shots, which punctured the pope's car and struck him four times. John Paul II survived, but it was clear his wide-open truck wouldn't suffice to protect him. From then on, bulletproof glass has encased popemobiles, although popes have occasionally ridden around without covering for brief periods.

Arturo Mari / AP

A 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.

Since adding bulletproof glass, popemobiles have added other necessary features, including ultra-powerful air conditioning to cool down the glass dome that popes sit in, reports The Telegraph.

Other protection measures include heavy-metal reinforcement on the bottom of the vehicle as well as the other sides, and the driver is always a trusted longtime Vatican employee. There's no partition between the pope and his driver; a microphone enables him to broadcast messages to crowds through speakers outside the popemobile.

The current weighs five tons and was just presented to Benedict last December by Mercedes-Benz.

"We work with the members of the Vatican and with the people in charge of the garages of the Vatican," Horn said. "These are all individual vehicles that are built to specifications."

The new pope's desire to get up close and personal with his faithful has presented challenges for his security detail.

"The pope's going to want to be up close hugging and touching and meeting people and that's going to be a tremendous concern for his security people,"?Rychlak said. "His security forces have taken him aside, or probably already have, and are going to say, 'Holy Father, you're putting us in a horrible situation if you don't go along with these things.'"

They're used to having to say that, though: Benedict didn't always like the feeling of a "shield between him and the people,"?Rychlak said. Most popemobiles are designed so the glass can be lowered, though.

This story was originally published on Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:36 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a2d2254/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C310C175184590Eriding0Ein0Estyle0Ethe0Eevolution0Eof0Ethe0Epopemobile0Dlite/story01.htm

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Secondhand Smoke Linked To Behavior Problems in Children

A woman's exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy may affect her child's risk of behavior problems, a new study has found.

The study showed that children whose mothers were exposed to secondhand smoke for at least 30 minutes daily were more than twice as likely to have attention and aggression problems at age 5 as the children whose mothers reported no secondhand smoke exposure.

This is one of the first studies to link a mother's exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy to child behavior problems.

Researchers ? led by Jianghong Liu, associate professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing ? evaluated more than 600 mother-child pairs in Jintan, China. The researchers asked mothers to recall how frequently they had been exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy, and also measured behavior problems in the children at ages 5 or 6 using a common behavior scale.

"This study is pretty novel in that it's a population of women where active smoking rates are very low, yet passive exposure is high ? which allows the researchers to really hone in on the effects of environmental tobacco smoke during the prenatal period," said Heather Volk, an epidemiologist at the University of Southern California who was not involved in the study.

Thirty-seven percent of the mothers in the study reported exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy. The results showed that 25 percent of the children whose mothers were exposed to secondhand smoke showed attention and aggression problems, whereas only 16 percent of the children whose mothers were not exposed showed behavior problems.

Smoking by women is highly stigmatized in China, so the researchers did not ask the study women whether they had smoked during pregnancy, though the researchers acknowledged that it is possible that several mothers may have smoked. A previous study estimated that less than 2 percent of Chinese women smoke.

More than three-quarters of the fathers in the study who stopped smoking at home while their wives were pregnant resumed smoking once the baby was born.

The study didn't account for the effects of exposure to secondhand smoke after the baby was born, but other research has shown that smoking near a baby has harmful effects on the child's health, Liu said.

"The postnatal window is critical for cognitive development," said Kim Yolton, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Previous studies have found that kids born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy may be at increased risk of behavior problems ? such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, aggression and criminal behavior ? during adolescence and adulthood

Although the researchers accounted for other variables that could affect children's behavior problems ? such as parents' histories of psychological problems, maternal age at childbirth, a child's gender and the levels of lead in the blood ? they can't say for certain whether any other factors influenced the results of the study.

For instance, the researchers did not collect information on whether the children were born prematurely or at a low birth weight ? both of which may be caused by smoking exposure and have been linked to child neurodevelopment.

Additionally, the researchers noted that a recent Canadian study found that tobacco products from China contained about three times the amount of heavy metals linked to behavior problems ? such as lead, cadmium and arsenic ? than the levels seen in Canadian tobacco products.

"Tobacco and nicotine are truly bad toxicants with lifelong consequences,? Yolton said. ?Pregnant women need to protect that fetus from any level of smoking exposure."

The study was published in the January issue of the journal NeuroToxicology.

Pass it on: Exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy may have long-term consequences on a child?s behavior.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/secondhand-smoke-linked-behavior-problems-children-141708359.html

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Reasons why Vietnam's real estate market has ... - Property Report

Difficulties in real estate market in the second half of 2011 have extended till the end of 2012. All regions and segments experienced lack of liquidity; many businesses went bankrupt, and many brokers gave up their jobs, etc. The confidence in the market hardly increases even when investors decrease property prices and provide buyers with many great deals.

First of all, difficulties of the macro economy should be mentioned. Vietnam?s economy in particular and the global one in general continue to face recessions and crises. In 2011 and 2012, the fact that businesses made lower profits led to limited investments in the real estate market. Many people had to sell their properties to address difficulties in other businesses.

Over the last two years, many real estate projects have been delayed or stretched due to loan cuts. For projects with investment up to hundreds or billions VND, investors often faced financial obstacles because banks refused to lend to them. In the past, even when the projects were unfinished, they could still sell their properties and quickly gain super-profits. However, the situation has changed. Now even when the projects are finished, investors still have great difficulties selling their properties.

Secondly, there is a lack of information and transparency, which leads to a distorted market and ?investment in movement?. Perhaps only in Vietnam can anyone become real estate investors without knowledge about the market and investment, which in turn contributes to the lack of professionalism of the market. The number of real estate companies has considerably increased; nevertheless, most of them are newly established or separated from real estate ? unrelated fields such as garment and textile, petroleum and agriculture. Many Vietnamese businesses with limited resources still invest in different projects, resulting in unprofessional and inconsistent working procedures.

Thirdly, ?chain effect? resulted from property speculations has created ?real estate fever?, forcing property prices to rocket. Many people buy properties, then sell for a higher deal and use this amount for further investment. To illustrate price increase, we can use a specific economic problem. Indeed, this problem has many complex variables, so to make it easier to understand, let?s imagine: Suppose that there are 10,000 speculators within the market with 10,000 houses priced X. The first sell his/her house for X+1, then use this amount to buy the second?s house at X+1 for further investment with a hope to sell at a higher price of X+2. Then, it is obvious that if these others want to sell their houses, they will price them X+1. Just like that, the first sells the second which creates ?chain effect? and pushes the market to a new price level with just a hit from the first buyer.

If transactions within market derive mainly from consuming demand, the price won?t be determined by ?confidence? and ?sense? like speculations. Similarly, when there is a lack of confidence in the market and a decrease in money flow, there will be reverse effects. The first one cannot sell his/her house at X+1, but X-1 for debt payment, and so does the others.

Fourthly, property prices, especially housing prices in big cities have been too high in comparison with people?s average income and development level of the economy. For years, property-market speculation, investment in movement and chain effect, etc. have been driving housing prices to high levels. The real estate bubble is likely to have been blown up to a maximum level and cannot be maintained anymore. Meanwhile, the macro economy continues to experience recessions with high inflation, causing housing problems for the poor with low income.

Fifthly, despite constantly increasing supply, the commodity structure of the real estate market is not balanced among segments and regions, thus hardly meet society?s demand, leading to a growing gap between supply and demand. Due to spontaneous development, many investors only focus on housing for high-income people, resulting in abundant supply for this segment. Whereas, the high demand in other segments including mid and low ones or rental housings in urban area are ignored. In addition, many projects are behind schedule, short of infrastructure connection and then abandoned, causing waste of the State?s land resources and investment.

Next, confidence in the real estate market is declining. Many people begin to realise that the property prices are too high, and expect prices to keep decreasing. Investors with financial problems, on the contrary keep selling out as many properties as possible at lower price rates with a hope to increase sales. As a result, the price is assumed to decrease more and more and few transactions are made.

Finally, the most important reason is due to governance and management with so many shortcomings in the legal system. Such inadequacies create favorable conditions for speculation, underground trading and tax evasion, which help some to easily make a lot of money out of real estate, while the majority still faces housing difficulties. Additionally, loopholes of the legal system fail to protect ordinary people when buying properties.

Source: http://www.property-report.com/reasons-why-vietnams-real-estate-market-has-been-stuck-in-such-difficulties-29007

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Research deciphers HIV attack plan: How AIDS virus grooms its assault team

Apr. 1, 2013 ? A new study by Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of Pennsylvania scientists defines previously unknown properties of transmitted HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS. The viruses that successfully pass from a chronically infected person to a new individual are both remarkably resistant to a powerful initial human immune-response mechanism, and they are blanketed in a greater amount of envelope protein that helps them access and enter host cells.

These findings will help inform vaccine design and interpretation of vaccine trials, and provide new insights into the basic biology of viral/host dynamics of infection.

During the course of each AIDS infection, the HIV-1 virus evolves within the infected person to escape the host's natural immune response and adapt to the local environment within the infected individual. Because HIV evolves so rapidly and so extensively, each person acquires and harbors a complex, very diverse set of viruses that develops over the years of their infection. Yet when HIV is transmitted to a new person from their partner, typically only a single virus from the diverse set in the partner is transmitted to establish the new infection.

The key discoveries here are the specific features that distinguish those specific viruses which successfully move to the new host, compared with the myriad forms in the viral population present in a chronically infected individual.

"The viruses that make it through transmission barriers to infect a new person are particularly infectious and resilient," said Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Bette Korber. "Through this study we now better understand the biology that defines that resilience."

The team set out to determine whether the viruses that were successfully transmitted to a new patient might share distinct biological properties relative to those typically isolated from people with long-term, chronic infection. To do this, the group at U Penn cloned a set of intact viruses from acute infection, and a set of viruses from chronically infected people, and characterized them by measuring quantities that might be related to the virus's ability to successfully establish a new infection. They discovered several clear correlations. For example, transmitted viruses were both more infectious and contained more protective "envelope" per virus; envelope is the protein the virus uses to enter host cells.

The team identified an additional interesting property that could be a general characteristic of new viral infections: the transmitted HIV was capable of replicating and growing well in the presence of alpha interferon. Alpha interferon production is part of our innate human immune response to a new infection. As soon as a new viral infection is initiated in our bodies, local immune cells at the site of infection start secreting molecules called cytokines that have general antiviral activity and can inhibit the production of the newly infected virus. Alpha interferon is one of these potent cytokines.

In the early days of an HIV infection, this innate immune response increases to an intense level, called a "cytokine storm," which gradually recedes during infection. For a newly transmitted HIV to successfully establish infection, it must grow and expand in the new host while facing this cytokine storm. Although typical chronic viruses are sensitive to and inhibited by alpha interferon, transmitted HIV-1 viruses grew well in the presence of interferon.

Los Alamos scientists Elena Giorgi, James Theiler and Bette Korber were part of the analysis team working closely with investigators at the University of Pennsylvania, Nick Parrish and Beatrice Hahn. The paper, "Phenotypic properties of transmitted founder HIV-1" is in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. N. F. Parrish, F. Gao, H. Li, E. E. Giorgi, H. J. Barbian, E. H. Parrish, L. Zajic, S. S. Iyer, J. M. Decker, A. Kumar, B. Hora, A. Berg, F. Cai, J. Hopper, T. N. Denny, H. Ding, C. Ochsenbauer, J. C. Kappes, R. P. Galimidi, A. P. West, P. J. Bjorkman, C. B. Wilen, R. W. Doms, M. O'Brien, N. Bhardwaj, P. Borrow, B. F. Haynes, M. Muldoon, J. P. Theiler, B. Korber, G. M. Shaw, B. H. Hahn. Phenotypic properties of transmitted founder HIV-1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1304288110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/N3tNW197Jd4/130401132056.htm

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Dana White says Alexander Gustafsson still fighting on Saturday?s UFC on Fuel card

Reports made the rounds on Sunday that this weekend's bout between Gegard Mousasi and Alexander Gustafsson was off. News outlets from Sweden said Gustaffson suffered a cut on his face that would take weeks to heal, and doctors wouldn't clear him. But the UFC disagrees.

UFC president Dana White told MMA Fighting that the bout is still on. Mousasi-Gustafsson is set for the main event for Saturday's card in Stockholm.

"The [Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation] has not said he can't fight, and he wants to fight," White texted to reporter Ariel Helwani.

Gustafsson is from Sweden and is popular in his home country. Besides wanting to fight in front of his home crowd, Gustafsson has another incentive to want the fight with Mousasi to happen. He's riding a six-fight win streak, with his last win coming over former UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. A win over Mousasi could put Gustafsson on the top of the pile of 205 lbers looking for a shot at the title. He even has plans to push for a title shot after the fight.

"My biggest concern right now is Mousasi," Gustafsson said in early March. "That's my biggest focus. It's the only thing I think of right now. I don't really think about [being No. 1] that much. I'm going to grab the mic from whoever has it after the fight and I'm going to challenge the champ after this fight, so let's see what happens."

But a facial laceration could thwart his plans. The fight is on, but it should be an interesting week as we watch if the fight still happens on Saturday.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-president-dana-white-says-alexander-gustafsson-still-141308060--mma.html

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Stanford researchers create genetic transistors, make biologic computing possible

When constructing computer circuits, most folks start with silicon and metal, but not the researchers at Stanford. The boffins in Palo Alto want to build computers out of living tissue, and to that end they've created a biological transistor, called the transcriptor. Transcriptors substitute DNA for semiconductors and RNA for the electrons in traditional transistors -- essentially, the transcriptor controls the flow of a specific RNA protein along a DNA strand using tailored combinations of enzymes. Using these transcriptors, researchers built logic gates to derive true/false answers to biochemical questions posed within living cells. Using these bio-transistors, researchers gain access to data not previously available (like whether an individual cell has been exposed to certain external stimuli), in addition to allowing them to control basic functions like cellular reproduction.

This new breakthrough -- when combined with the DNA-based data storage and a method to transmit DNA between cells the school's already working on -- means that Stanford has created all the necessary components of a biologic computer. Such computers would allow man to actually reprogram how living systems operate. Of course, they haven't built a living genetic PC just yet, but to speed up its development, the team has contributed all the transcriptor-based logic gates to the public domain. Looking to build your own biologic computer? A full explanation of the transcriptor awaits below.

Filed under: Science

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Via: The Verge

Source: Stanford University, Science Magazine

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/31/stanford-genetic-transistor-transcriptor/

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