India leads in measles mortality
Measly performance in vaccine coverage meant that 47%
of measles mortality in the world in 2010 occurred in India. Even Africa
came second accounting for 36% of mortality. This data was published in
the lancet based on a model constructed using population, immunization
coverage, surveillance data, and country specific mortality rates. In
2001, all member states of the WHO agreed to a target of reducing
measles mortality by 90 percent by 2010 compared with year 2000.
Compared to this the actual reduction by 74% is not bad. However India’s
contribution was just a 26% reduction. In sharp contrast Africa recorded
a drop of 85%. Hence the burning need to introduce a second dose of the
measles vaccine. The new Strategic plan aims to cut global measles
deaths by at least 95% by 2015. It also plans to eliminate measles and
rubella in at least five WHO regions by 2020
(http://www.unfoundation.org/news; The Lancet, 24 April 2012; The Hindu
24 April 2012).
Bond for US Bound Doctors
This year onwards any doctor going to the US for
higher studies will compulsorily sign a bond promising to return after
completion of studies. This was announced by Union Health and Family
Welfare Minister, Ghulam Nabhi Azad. He also mentioned that in the past
3 years 3000 doctors left for the US and failed to return. Mr Azad also
favors increasing the MBBS duration to 6.5 years with a compulsory 1
year rural practice linked to the Rural Health Mission. The governments
take on this emotive issue is that huge sums of money are spent on each
student who studies in a government medical college and there has to be
a payback time. A study from the Department of Hospital Administration,
AIIMS found that it takes Rs 1.7 crore to produce one doctor. The
conflict is between what the country does for us and what we are willing
to do for the country (The Times of India 24 April 2012, The Hindu 23
April 2012).
New Antimalarial from Ranbaxy
India pharma giant, Ranbaxy has just launched ‘Synriam’
as the country’s first domestically developed antimalarial. It’s a
combination of arterolane maleate, a short acting molecule and
piperaquine phosphate a long acting one. Piperaquine has been known
since the 1960’s but Arterolane was discovered by a collaborative drug
discovery project funded by the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a
Swiss charity led by Jonathan Vennerstrom. It is considered to have one
of the funkiest known chemical structures. MMV partnered with Ranbaxy to
carry the development through to the clinic. However, after MMV reviewed
clinical trial data it backed out from developing the drug. Ranbaxy was
then granted a worldwide, royalty-free license for this compound at no
cost. In clinical trials, Ranbaxy reported a cure rate of 95% when three
tablets were taken over the course of three days at a total cost of Rs
130/-. Artemesin is produced from plant sources and hence is expensive
while arterolane can be chemically synthesized and consequently cheaper.
It is intended for treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria
(http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2012/May/ranbaxy-synriam-anti-malarial-mmv-india.asp,
The Hindu 26 April 2012).
Harvard Takes on Elsevier
Even Harvard Library, one of the world’s wealthiest
institutes has reached the end of its tether. It has released a memo to
its 2100 teaching and research staff. The memo from Harvard’s faculty
advisory council has declared that price hikes from publishing giants
like Elsevier, Springer and Wiley have made scholarly communication
"fiscally unsustainable" and "academically restrictive" while drawing
profits of 35% or more. Prices for online access by 2 major publishers
have increased 145% in 6 years. It seems paradoxical that faculty do the
research, write the papers, referee, serve on editorial boards, all for
free and then buy back the results of their labor at outrageous prices.
The memo has asked professional organizations to take control of
scholarly publishing and consider submitting their work to open access
journals and resign from editorial boards of journals that are not open
access. In the UK, 30 libraries negotiated and struck a deal with
Elsevier and Wiley to save themselves GBP 20 m. Will the meek inherit
the earth? (The Hindu 26 April 2012)