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Big Pharma offer cut-price vaccines to children
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Tumour call
being a statistical fluke are much less likely,” says Rob Roser, a spokesman for the CDF team, which reported the signal. The finding hints at a particle that does not fit into the standard model of physics. But Roser says the CDF team is cautious about this interpretation: “It could be we are overlooking something.” Any day now, a second Fermilab team, called DZero, is expected to announce whether it has found the signal. Either way, the massive amount of data due to be collected at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN should tell us whether or not there really is something new there.
60 Seconds
calls lasting 30 minutes per day for 10 years. There was also limited evidence of increased risk for a rare form of brain cancer called acoustic neuroma. IARC’s Robert Baan said that the conclusion of a “2B” classification
UH-OH, cellphones are right up there with talcum powder in the list of possible threats to human life. After a week-long meeting in Lyon, France, convened by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research “There is limited evidence of raised risk on Cancer (IARC), 31 experts, of brain tumours, but including cancer and radiation specialists, classed mobile phones only in heavy users” as “possibly carcinogenic”. for cellphone radiation ranked it They concluded that there is alongside 240 other things that limited evidence that cellphones may be carcinogens, including raise the risk of malignant brain bathroom talcum powder and tumours by 40 per cent, but only dry-cleaning chemicals. for heavy users who have made
Cut-price vaccines for the poorest
Skin cancer hope
simon akam/reuters
TWO new drugs for the deadliest IN WHAT appears to be an outpouring of benevolence, pharmaceutical form of skin cancer are being hailed as the biggest breakthrough companies have been falling over themselves to offer cheap vaccines in cancer therapy in 30 years. to protect the world’s poorest The first, vemurafenib, inhibits children from preventable diseases. a rogue form of the BRAF gene But it’s not just goodwill: in the that accompanies half of all competition for contracts to supply malignant skin tumours. UNICEF with childhood vaccines over Paul Chapman at the Memorial the next five years, the emergence Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in of new vaccine manufacturers has New York showed that the drug driven down prices. outperforms dacarbazine – the Andrew Witty, chief executive most commonly prescribed drug of GlaxoSmithKline led the charge, for melanoma that has spread. offering to cut the price of a vaccine After six months, survival was against a diarrhoea-causing rotavirus 84 per cent for those taking by 95 per cent, to $2.50 per dose. vemurafenib compared with Merck, meanwhile, is also offering 64 per cent for those taking a cut price on the same vaccine and dacarbazine. The results were a two-thirds reduction in the price of presented this week at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. Meanwhile, Caroline Robert’s team at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Institute in Villejuif, France, found that 28.5 per cent of 250 patients who received dacarbazine with ipilimumab survived for two years compared with 17.9 per cent of those taking dacarbazine alone. Ipilimumab is an antibody that works by boosting the immune system’s response to a tumour. The firms behind each drug are now planning to combine ipilimumab –Cheaper protection– and vemurafenib in a trial.
its vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) says it is “encouraged by” the price cuts. It adds that the main impetus for such drastic price reductions was the call from UNICEF for a new round of vaccine supplies, with the deadline for tenders closing on 30 May. Competition from newly developed countries has played a part, with companies such as the Serum Institute of India offering an all-in-one vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and a type of influenza for just $1.75. “It’s pushing the big guys to lower prices,” says a spokesperson for GAVI. “So we’re hoping more emergent manufacturers will enter the market.”
Deceptively simple Is the long-standing Collatz conjecture finally solved? Proposed in 1937, it states that repeatedly applying two simple algebraic rules to any number will always eventually produce 1. It has been verified for numbers up to 5.76 x 1018. Now Gerhard Opfer of the University of Hamburg in Germany claims to have proved it true for all numbers.
Climate death threat Several Australian climate scientists have been given extra security after receiving death threats. Plans to levy a tax on Australia’s most polluting companies from July 2012 are being opposed by those who claim the move will lead to higher prices and lost jobs.
Slow-grow brain New brain cells take months to mature, which might be why antidepressants – thought to work by stimulating neuron growth – take so long to act. Shawn Kohler’s team at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign found that neurons in the hippocampi of macaque monkeys took over six months to fully mature (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1017099108).
Biolab ‘tornado-proof’ A proposed bio-defence lab in Kansas that will handle diseases such as foot and mouth will be tornado-proof, the US Department of Homeland Security promises. The $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility will be built to withstand winds of 370 kilometres per hour, it says.
Stem cell optimism The first person to receive embryonic stem cell therapy for a spinal cord injury believes it is working. Although the procedure was intended only to prove safety, T. J. Atchinson, who is paralysed from the waist down, says that six months after treatment he can feel hairs on his leg being pulled and weight on his lap.
11 June 2011| NewScientist | 7
Tumour call
being a statistical fluke are much less likely,” says Rob Roser, a spokesman for the CDF team, which reported the signal. The finding hints at a particle that does not fit into the standard model of physics. But Roser says the CDF team is cautious about this interpretation: “It could be we are overlooking something.” Any day now, a second Fermilab team, called DZero, is expected to announce whether it has found the signal. Either way, the massive amount of data due to be collected at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN should tell us whether or not there really is something new there.
60 Seconds
calls lasting 30 minutes per day for 10 years. There was also limited evidence of increased risk for a rare form of brain cancer called acoustic neuroma. IARC’s Robert Baan said that the conclusion of a “2B” classification
UH-OH, cellphones are right up there with talcum powder in the list of possible threats to human life. After a week-long meeting in Lyon, France, convened by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research “There is limited evidence of raised risk on Cancer (IARC), 31 experts, of brain tumours, but including cancer and radiation specialists, classed mobile phones only in heavy users” as “possibly carcinogenic”. for cellphone radiation ranked it They concluded that there is alongside 240 other things that limited evidence that cellphones may be carcinogens, including raise the risk of malignant brain bathroom talcum powder and tumours by 40 per cent, but only dry-cleaning chemicals. for heavy users who have made
Cut-price vaccines for the poorest
Skin cancer hope
simon akam/reuters
TWO new drugs for the deadliest IN WHAT appears to be an outpouring of benevolence, pharmaceutical form of skin cancer are being hailed as the biggest breakthrough companies have been falling over themselves to offer cheap vaccines in cancer therapy in 30 years. to protect the world’s poorest The first, vemurafenib, inhibits children from preventable diseases. a rogue form of the BRAF gene But it’s not just goodwill: in the that accompanies half of all competition for contracts to supply malignant skin tumours. UNICEF with childhood vaccines over Paul Chapman at the Memorial the next five years, the emergence Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in of new vaccine manufacturers has New York showed that the drug driven down prices. outperforms dacarbazine – the Andrew Witty, chief executive most commonly prescribed drug of GlaxoSmithKline led the charge, for melanoma that has spread. offering to cut the price of a vaccine After six months, survival was against a diarrhoea-causing rotavirus 84 per cent for those taking by 95 per cent, to $2.50 per dose. vemurafenib compared with Merck, meanwhile, is also offering 64 per cent for those taking a cut price on the same vaccine and dacarbazine. The results were a two-thirds reduction in the price of presented this week at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. Meanwhile, Caroline Robert’s team at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Institute in Villejuif, France, found that 28.5 per cent of 250 patients who received dacarbazine with ipilimumab survived for two years compared with 17.9 per cent of those taking dacarbazine alone. Ipilimumab is an antibody that works by boosting the immune system’s response to a tumour. The firms behind each drug are now planning to combine ipilimumab –Cheaper protection– and vemurafenib in a trial.
its vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) says it is “encouraged by” the price cuts. It adds that the main impetus for such drastic price reductions was the call from UNICEF for a new round of vaccine supplies, with the deadline for tenders closing on 30 May. Competition from newly developed countries has played a part, with companies such as the Serum Institute of India offering an all-in-one vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and a type of influenza for just $1.75. “It’s pushing the big guys to lower prices,” says a spokesperson for GAVI. “So we’re hoping more emergent manufacturers will enter the market.”
Deceptively simple Is the long-standing Collatz conjecture finally solved? Proposed in 1937, it states that repeatedly applying two simple algebraic rules to any number will always eventually produce 1. It has been verified for numbers up to 5.76 x 1018. Now Gerhard Opfer of the University of Hamburg in Germany claims to have proved it true for all numbers.
Climate death threat Several Australian climate scientists have been given extra security after receiving death threats. Plans to levy a tax on Australia’s most polluting companies from July 2012 are being opposed by those who claim the move will lead to higher prices and lost jobs.
Slow-grow brain New brain cells take months to mature, which might be why antidepressants – thought to work by stimulating neuron growth – take so long to act. Shawn Kohler’s team at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign found that neurons in the hippocampi of macaque monkeys took over six months to fully mature (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1017099108).
Biolab ‘tornado-proof’ A proposed bio-defence lab in Kansas that will handle diseases such as foot and mouth will be tornado-proof, the US Department of Homeland Security promises. The $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility will be built to withstand winds of 370 kilometres per hour, it says.
Stem cell optimism The first person to receive embryonic stem cell therapy for a spinal cord injury believes it is working. Although the procedure was intended only to prove safety, T. J. Atchinson, who is paralysed from the waist down, says that six months after treatment he can feel hairs on his leg being pulled and weight on his lap.
11 June 2011| NewScientist | 7