A blog about chemistry, drug development, science, and technology
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It appears according to WHO in an article in the Seattle Time that the virus has not mutated. It’s an interesting read with more details than I had read in previous articles.
MSNBC also had a good article.
Technorati Tags: bird flu, flu pandemic, H5N1
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Bloomberg reports on the possibility that bird flu bird flu MAY have been transmitted from human to human without contact with animals or birds. If true this would be very disconcerting. This took place in Indonesia on the island of Sumatara where seven family members were infected, six died and there was no evidence of infected animals in the immediate area. The US CDC and the WHO are both investigating and the primary interest is in if and how much the virus may have mutated.
I am hesitant to even post this as I try to avoid being alarmist. It should be clearly stated that this is still under investigation. There is no way of knowing for sure that the infections happened by human contact. It could be that there were animals involved and the evidence just has not (or could not) be found.
One other area of concern is that pigs have been found in Indonesia that have antibodies to the bird flu (according to Flu Stories: Indonesian Cluster Follow-Up) . Checking again seems to show the pigs were not currently infected (as of May 19). This shows the possibility of confusion. This means the pigs were probably infected at one time (hence the antibodies) but weere not currently infected with the cirus. However, this of concern because there is the possibility that pigs, infected with both bird flu and a human flu at the same time, could allow “mix and match” to occur and lead to a bird flu virus that could be transmitted from human to human.
Resources:
• Very good blog posting on the situation: Flu Stories: Indonesian Cluster Follow-Up
• CDC information on pandemic flu
• Lancet article on world preparedness from May 13, 2006 (free registration required)
• Flu Wiki and specific thread to this incident
Technorati Tags: bird flu, flu pandemic, H5N1
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Since there seems to be many negative stories surrounding the pharmaceutical industry, when there is something positive, I try to post about it. Sometimes, it is too easy to be negative.
Exelon is already approved for early to mid-stage Alzheimers. It works by preventing the breakdown of acetylcholine, an important neuro-transmitter. This seems to slow down the progression of Alzheimers but it is not a cure.
Novartis is seeking to expand the labeling to include dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease. It is already approved in about 14 countries in Europe for this indication. It would be the first drug approved in the US for dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease. Since about 40% of people with Parkinson’s progress also develop dementia, this will be an important treatment. It should be noted though that Novartis is being cautious and has said this is not a fast growing drug for them.
It is interesting that the name Exelon was approved since this is also the name of an energy company outside Chicago Here’s another interesting article on this potential confusion.
Resources:
• FDA Panel Backs Novartis Drug: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
• Yahoo! News Search Results for Exelon
• Exelon - Google News
• Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment - Exelon (rivastigmine tartrate) (main website for the drug)
Technorati Tags: alzheimers, dementia, Exelon, Parkinson’s disease
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In getting caught up on some of my literature reading, I came across an interesting article from the journal Organic Process Research and Development. Having spent my career as a development chemist, this journal is invaluable in keeping up to date with tricks and tips for large scale production. The following article was in the latest issue (Organic Process Research & Development 2006, 10, 163−164).
A Simple Modification to Prevent Side Reactions in Swern-Type Oxidations Using Py·SO3 Lijian Chen,* Steven Lee, Matt Renner, Qingping Tian, and Naresh Nayyar Chemical Research and Development, La Jolla Laboratories, Pfizer Inc.
The article describes using excess pyridine to convert the pyridine•sulfuric acid 1:1 salt which is present in commercial pyridine•sulfur trioxide to a 2:1 salt. This prevents unwanted side reactions from occurring, at least in this report. In this case they are oxidizing a primary alcohol to an aldehyde and then performing a Wittig reaction without isolating the aldehyde (a common approach in chemical development and production).
I just find it interesting that as widely used as the Swern oxidation is, this hasn’t been reported before. It is interesting to know that there are still “well-known reactions”, that actually aren’t. My usually reaction to being presented with a route containing a Swern oxidation is to ask what other oxidizing conditions have been tried. Unfortunately, at least early in the development process, nothing else was tried because the Swern oxidation worked so well.
Technorati Tags: swern oxidation
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I wanted to let folks know that I have posted for download on my website an Excel file that has the 1H and 13C chemical shifts of most common laboratory solvents. I made this for my own use, but thought others might find it useful.
Technorati Tags: NMR solvent data
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Yesterday, the FDA Advisory committee for vaccines met and recommended 13-0 to approve Gardasil, Merck’s vaccine against human papillomavirus virus (HPV) which can lead to cervical cancer in women. It is good to see the FDA coming down on the side of good science again and not giving in to political pressure. It is estimated that this vaccine could save many of the almost 300,000 lives of women who die world-wide annually, including 3,500 each year in the US.
One aspect which may limit wide-spread use is the cost estimated to be $300-500 and the fact that it is three shots administered over six months. Merck is seeking approval for use in children as young as 9 whereas the panel recommended children as young as 11. It is important to administer the shots before they are sexually active.
It should be noted that Gardasil does not protect against all forms of HPV, but is effective against the ones primarily responsible for cervical cancer.
Other links:
• Washington Post: FDA Panel Endorses Cervical Cancer Vaccine
• Yahoo Finance: FDA Advisory Committee Votes Unanimously That Clinical Data Support the Efficacy and Safety of GARDASIL(R), Merck’s Investigational Cervical Cancer Vaccine
• Yahoo News results for Gardasil
You can hear more of my comments on Gardasil in the Bicyclemark Audio Communique #128
Technorati Tags: FDA, Gardasil
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Just wanted to let folks know I have a large list of chemistry and pharmaceutical trade publications available on the Internet listed on my site. If anyone knows of ones I’ve missed, let me know and I’ll add them.
Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Trade Publications
Technorati Tags: pharma trade publciations
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Let me preference this posting by saying I personally think the probability of bird flu becoming a pandemic is remote. My limited understanding from the experts I’ve read or listened to indicate thy do not know how many mutations to the current H5N1 would be required to allow the virus to spread human-to-human. Right now, to the best of my knowledge, all human cases have come from direct contact with birds.
A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled Chaos Feared in Pandemic Flu Plan covered some of the government’s recommendations. The major message seems to be that state and local governments are on their own and shouldn’t rely on the federal government for help. Looks like the federal government at least learn something from Hurricane Katrina, but not the lesson most of us would hope. Some of the suggestions make sense; cancel nonessential travel and wash your hands as well as telecommuting if possible. Others are little more questionable like recommending people stand at least 3 feet apart?! Supposedly, this is all the further a sneeze can travel.
This got me to thinking about who in the government is in charge of these plans and what their background may be. I was hoping to see someone with medical experience or maybe someone who had worked for the Center for Disease Control or at the least some experience in public health. The person in charge of “the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies” is Stewart Simonson, Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness. Wikipedia has an interesing bio on him. Seems he has little experience with public health, but has a lot of experience running railroads. He was the chairman of the board of Amtrak in the late 90’s. According to this bio he has close ties to the former Wisconsin governor and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Stewart Simonson worked under Tommy Tompson when he was govern and did some work on emergency management.
interestingly, the Health and Human Services site no longer include his biography on their site, but there is still a cached copy at Yahoo. Interestingly they still include the position on their listing of bios here, but it is no longer linked to anything.
I am by no means an expert in public health and pandemics but I can’t help wondering if we couldn’t get someone better qualified for this position.
Here are some resources on this topic:
• The actual national plan is on the White House website.
• Government Pandemic Flu site
• Yahoo search results for “Stewart Simonson”
• POGO blog The Mike Brown of HHS
• Google search results for “Stewart Simonson”
• Sourcewatch (a project of the Center for Media and Democracy) on Stewart Simonson.
Technorati Tags: bird flu, flu pandemic, H5N1
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I have added Feedblitz to the left column of this blog under Subscribe. Enter your email address hit “Subscribe me” and you will be subscribed to the full feed via email. There is an authentication step to make sure you signed up. This is another easy way to see my posts without having to visit the website. I highly recommend that people subscribe via the RSS feeds but if you don’t want to learn how to do that, you can now subscribe via email. Also, there are no ads or pop ups in this email, just the contents on my posts.
Note that your email address will not be shared or given to anyone other than myself and FeedBlitz. Their privacy policy can be read online. I also will never give your email to anyone. The only time I even see it is if there is some sort of problem with delivery. You can easily identify the email because they will always start with [Feedblitz] in the subject line and be from FeedBlitz@mail.feedblitz.com. The email will be sent once a day and contain all the posts for that day. You can also decide to receive the email in html or plain text by changing your preferences on the Feedblitz site.
Currently only the full feed has been set up. If you have an interest in subscribing to only a certain category via email let me know and I can set it up.
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Interesting news that Astrazenaca is to buy Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) for $1.3 billion. It will be interesting to see the fall out from this since CAT is working on a variety of projects for other pharma/biotech companies such as Genzyme. Here’s a list of CAT’s partners. Some of the larger players are Abbott, Human Genome Sciences, Merck, and Pfizer. Having been involved with a contract manufacturer who was bought by a competitor I can tell you there are some people who are scrambling to figure out a backup plan. There will definitely be some turmoil for a while but this may open the door to other antibody manufactures to possibly lure CAT’s partners away or at least be given serious consideration is a second source. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
Technorati Tags: astrazenaca
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