Word: drugging
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even a poison secreted by South American frogs and used by tribes like the Piaroa to make deadly blowgun darts now serves as the basis for a morphine substitute being developed by Chicago-based drug giant Abbott Laboratories. "This is what I call the genetic patrimony of our indigenous peoples," says Venezuelan Science and Technology Vice Minister Marlene Yadira. "And if these communities disappear" because of their poverty, "who will be the source of this knowledge for the companies...
...Drug corporations warn that tribal royalties could raise prescription-drug costs in countries like the U.S., where those costs already are a hot political issue. That's one reason (in addition to the campaign cash showered on Washington by drugmakers) the Bush Administration opposes the idea. It points to a World Trade Organization ruling that excludes commercial rights for traditional knowledge that is later engineered into medicines or genetically developed foods. But at the December intellectual-property meeting in Geneva, indigenous groups plan to cite the U.N.'s 1992 Convention on Biodiversity, which concedes to developing nations the right...
...growing dispute may sour the drug industry's appetite for rain-forest research and development. Abbott, for example, irked by tribal claims, denies that a poison-dart frog had anything to do with its new pain-killer (which is in clinical trials) other than inspiring the company to take a closer look at a similar group of synthetic compounds. Says a spokeswoman for another major U.S. firm: "We've started scaling back. We just don't think you can define 'traditional knowledge' in that kind of legalistic way." Others fear that, given the notorious corruption of many Third World governments...
...investors and clinicians is the prospect of a similar blood test to diagnose Alzheimer's disease. Doctors screen for the illness today using cognitive and memory exams, spinal taps or imaging tests--all pricey, none fail-safe. For the hundreds of companies working on treatments, that means relying on drug trials involving patients who may not even have the disease. "That's why the treatments we have now don't work that well," says Adams. In September, Amorfix announced that its technology can detect aggregated beta-amyloid, the protein fragment that, when gobbed together in the brain, is thought...
...BPro, HealthSTATS International, Ting sold three of the four medical clinics he was running. "Everyone thought I was mad," he says. Ting launched the BPro in Singapore last spring, and is readying its launch in the U.S., where it has been cleared for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration...