St. Luke's introduces new LASIK
For people who are dependent on eyeglasses or contact lenses for their day-to-day activities, laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis or LASIK offers freedom from these often inconvenient visual aids. Refractive eye surgery has been gaining popularity in correcting nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.
St. Luke's Medical Center (SLMC) recently acquired the Carl Zeiss Meditec Excimer Laser (MEL-80), the first of its kind in the country. Dr. Ruben Lim Bon Siong, head of the St. Luke's Vision Laser Center, explained what makes the MEL-80 laser stand out from the other lasers currently available.
"The most important [quality] is the speed," said Lim Bon Siong. Treatment time with the MEL-80 is twice as fast as other lasers. Since treatment time is cut in half, the cornea is exposed for a shorter period and is less prone to drying during treatment. There is also less tissue swelling so visual recovery is faster. Faster treatment time translates to less stress and anxiety for the patient. It also means more patients can be treated during the same time span.
The MEL-80's safety features are unparalleled. Its eye tracker is two times faster and delay time is four times shorter so the machine can adjust to eye movement faster. Its automatic pupil recognition and limbus registration allow for accurate alignment during treatment.
The machine is equipped with a plume evacuator that removes particulate matter from the laser-beam path, preventing the patient and the surgeon from inhaling this. As the eye's shape changes based on the patient's position, the MEL-80 is capable of OcuLign eye registration which allows the machine to translate measurements taken during a sitting position to a lying position. Because of this the pupil need not be dilated during the procedure. MEL-80 is also not easily affected by humidity, temperature changes, and other external conditions.
Dr. Noel Chua, director of St. Luke's International Eye Institute, said that the MEL-80 is the "best of all lasers available based on studies." Three months after treatment using the MEL-80 laser, 93 percent of patients attained 20/20 vision. "SLMC offers our professional services [and] technological advances that we have for the Filipino people." M Carisa Paraz, MD
Medical City has new cardio center
The Medical City capped its celebration of Heart Week with a coming-out event on February 23 for its new and integrated cardiovascular facility.
Dr. Eugene Ramos, head of the cardiovascular center, said that the center's physical facilities, which are at par with the country's best, are in full operation already. This year, the center completes the next important step of rounding up and organizing its support team from the different specialties.
"We have about 50 specialists working with us now and it's also a matter of getting them together in an organized manner, putting our program together, so that the patient really gets to experience full integrated support from the center," he added. The specialists include practitioners trained from leading cardiovascular institutions abroad like the Cleveland Clinic and the Texas Heart Institute.
The center likes to establish its edge in the appropriate use of technology. "It's the experience of being here that is more important. While we are evidence-based and have the best technology, we are different in that we focus more on empowering the patients. It's a deliberate culture that we inculcate among the doctors themselves," Ramos said.
In addition to its three main sections for adult and pediatric cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, the center also has units offering interventional cardiology, vascular medicine, cardiac rehabilitation, electrophysiology, critical care, and cardiovascular research.
The hospital takes pride in its strong open-heart-surgery program, which is comparable to world standards and can also handle complex congenital heart abnormalities. In collaboration with the hospital's center for regenerative medicine, the center also embarks on cutting-edge research in stem cells and molecular cardiology.
Under Dr. Samuel Bernal of Stanford University, initiatives are underway for myocardial regeneration in cases of ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy.
The center's facilities are housed in the second and third levels of the hospital. The second floor houses the cardiovascular laboratory and the peripheral and cardiac vascular center while on the third are the cardiac-catheterization laboratory, telemetry, cardiac-intensive-care unit, and cardiovascular surgery.
Meanwhile, the hospital has been accredited by the Joint Commission International, a US-based organization examining operational standards of health organizations. Dr. Alfredo Bengzon, president and chief executive officer, said the hospital garnered an impressive 97.90-percent rating from JCI . M Grace Roxas
Prizes instead of exclusive patents
GENEVA
Pharmaceutical companies should be awarded "prizes" for innovation rather than exclusive intellectual property rights in a bid to broaden global access to medicines. James Love, director of the Knowledge Ecology International group, said a new paradigm was needed in place of the current patent regime.
The patent system has "priced modern medicines out of the reach of the poor," he told a recent conference organized by the United Nations trade and development agency and the Stockholm Network.
Thailand's new military government has recently taken matters into its own hands by allowing imports of cheaper, copycat versions of a top-selling heart-disease drug and an antiretroviral drug from India, a global supplier of low-cost drugs.
But a representative of pharmaceutical manufacturers said the Thai move was actually "industrial policy" masquerading as concern for public health, with the state sector acting as a commercial entity. Eric Noehrenberg of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations said instead that "partnerships and negotiations with patent holders" were the way to improve access.
Love's proposed Medical Innovation Prize Fund, legislation for which has been introduced in the US Congress, would reward companies for developing new products, without granting them exclusive production and distribution rights.
In a submission to a World Health Organization discussion on the subject last year, Love wrote that the prize system is "a new system of intellectual property: one that separates the market for innovation from the market for the physical copies of the knowledge good."
His stance was supported by Graham Dutfield, a senior research fellow on intellectual property at the University of London, who said that the revenues from patents have not enhanced research and development into diseases that affect the poor. Instead, major pharmaceutical companies focus their research on the "worried well" in the Western world, where they can achieve greater profit margins. M AFP
Indian firms bid for Merck generics
NEW DELHI
Two top Indian drug firms, Ranbaxy and Cipla, have said they are bidding for the generic-drugs business of German pharmaceutical giant Merck KGaA while a third firm, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, has pulled out of the race.
Ranbaxy said that it had made a "nonbinding" bid for the Merck Generics Business at "a value it considers fair and reasonable."
"We submitted our bid…. We are looking to evaluate the asset and will be practical about it," Ranbaxy chief executive Malvinder Singh said. "We are not in a rat race for acquisitions but are focused on creating value for our shareholders."
Merck's generics business has been estimated to be worth nearly US$5.2 billion by analysts.
Cipla officials said the company had tied up with a consortium of private equity firms to make a bid. "We are in the running and our consortium partners are submitting the offer for the Merck generics business," Cipla chief executive Amar Lulla told the Mint business newspaper.
Merck KGaA said it was considering selling its generic-drugs business in a move that could help finance its acquisition of Swiss biotechnology company Serono, which it bought this year. M AFP
Wyeth invests $81M in expansion
Wyeth Philippines Inc. (WPI) is investing US$81.5 million in a program to expand its milk-formula manufacturing facility in Canlubang, Laguna. The US$81.5-million expansion project is expected to create about 300 new jobs, contribute more to the government's tax revenues, and generate foreign-exchange savings with the shift to domestic production for some of the company's milk products.
Expected to be fully operational next year, the expansion involves the establishment of a third dryer that will meet the highest quality standards of any food-manufacturing facility worldwide. It will modernize WPI operations and increase its capacity to produce powdered milk formulas by 70 percent to 44.6 million kilograms a year.
"WPI is constantly looking for new and better ways to serve its customers and our additional facility allows us to respond faster to the needs of our consumers," president and general manager Perpetuo de Claro said. "With this investment, our company offers support for the efforts of government to generate employment for our people. We project to contribute approximately PhP500 million yearly for the first eight years, and around PhP900 million annually thereafter by way of additional tax payments to the government. These additional tax revenues and foreign-exchange savings of around US$65 million yearly from the investment also helps boost the fiscal position of our country."
He also said that the company might export to other countries in the future, and expressed hope that the new facility will encourage other potential investors to look favorably at the Philippines as an investment site.
WPI, an affiliate of Wyeth, has been doing business in the country since 1959, and currently employs more than 700 people. Its pharmaceuticals division sells, among other drugs, Tazocin, an injectable antibiotic for severe and life-threatening infections; Enbrel, a biologic treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis; and Prevenar, a vaccine against invasive pneumococal disease.
Wyeth is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing, and marketing of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biotechnology products, and nonprescription medicines that improve the quality of life of people worldwide. M
Sanofi, NGO team up v. malaria
PARIS
Sanofi-Aventis on Mach 1 joined forces with a nongovernment organization to unveil a new low-cost antimalarial treatment that turns established drug-industry practice on its head. Forgoing both patents and profits, the drug company and the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) will begin delivering the new medicine, ASAQ, later this year to nations in Africa, the continent worst hit by the disease.
"Our aim is to be sure that ASAQ will be available to patients as soon as possible, even as we show that we respect international quality standards," said Sanofi-Aventis president Jean-Francois Dehecq.
Malaria kills at least a million people in the world every year, and infects 350 to 500 million. Some 3,000 children under five succumb to the mosquito-born disease each day in Africa alone.
The drug will be available "starting in mid-April in 15 African countries," said Robert Sebbag, a vice president at Sanofi-Aventis, adding that the company's factory in Morocco is currently able to produce "18 million treatments per year."
A major innovation of ASAQ is its "no profit, no loss" price: less than 50 US cents for children and a dollar for adults for a full treatment, if distributed through public-health outlets. No less unusual is the absence of a patent, which drug companies depend on to insure profits through market exclusivity for a set period of time.
"The fact that ASAQ will be made affordable from the start and is not patented lifts an important barrier to access, and should serve as a model for the future development of medications for treating neglected diseases," said Bernard Pecoul, executive director of DNDi.
ASAQ-a fixed-dose combination of two drugs, artesunate (AS) and amodiaquine (AQ)-has proved effective against even drug-resistant malaria, and is recommended by the World Health Organization. It comes in a tablet form, and a full course of treatment consists of one pill per day over three days for children and two tablets per day over the same period for adults.
The simple dosing regimen "is adapted to the needs of patients because it is simple to use, is affordable, and is a quality product," said Pecoul. "It will help to improve treatment compliance, thereby reducing the risk of emerging resistance."
Set up in 2003, DNDi is a small, not-for-profit drug-research and-development organization that develops new treatments for communicable diseases that, it says, major drug companies have neglected.
Sanofi-Aventis is the fourth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, with net sales in 2006 of US$37.4 billion. M AFP
MSD launches "School on Air"
In observance of Cervical Cancer Awareness and Women's Month, Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) and dzMM (630 kHz) launched School on Air, a segment in "Bago Yan Ah," a science and technology program that airs from 4:30 to 6:00 P.M. on Sundays. School on Air, which aims to educate the public on cervical-cancer prevention, screening, and early detection, will run from March to June. It involves doctors who will discuss relevant information about the disease.
Cervical cancer has become a major health problem in the Philippines. According to the Philippine Cancer Society's (PCS) 2005 Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates, cervical cancer was the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in women in 2004. The PCS estimated more than 7,000 new cases in 2005, on top of 3,807 deaths.
Cervical cancer, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), does not always have symptoms. For the majority of people who have HPV, the body's defenses are enough to clear the virus. However, for women who do not clear certain types of the virus, cervical cancer can develop later in life.
Since the most common form of cervical cancer starts with precancerous changes, there are two ways to stop the disease from developing: prevent the precancers or detect precancers before they become cancerous.
Most precancers of the cervix can be prevented by avoiding exposure to HPV. Delaying sexual intercourse while one is young can help avoid HPV. Limiting the number of sexual partners and avoiding sex with people who have had many sexual partners can lower risk of exposure to HPV.
Cervical cancer can also be prevented with vaccination. Gardasil, a vaccine developed by MSD was approved recently by the Bureau of Food and Drugs and will soon be available locally. For more information about cervical cancer and Gardasil, call the MSD Call Center (+63-2-8786338 or 1-800-1-8886737) or visit www.msdbeonguard.com. M
Schering-Plough buys Organon
THE HAGUE
Dutch-Swedish pharmaceutical group Akzo Nobel has agreed to sell its Organon BioSciences drugs unit to Schering-Plough for US$14.4 billion. The sale is expected to be completed by the second half of the year.
Organon BioSciences comprises Organon, which has a leading position in gynecological drugs such as birth-control pills and fertility-hormone treatment, and Intervet, which develops animal-health products such as pet vaccines. The combined operations generate about US$4.8 billion in annual revenues and employ 19,000 people in over 100 countries.
"Organon BioSciences will be an excellent fit with Schering-Plough," said Fred Hassan, Schering-Plough chair. "It builds on our growing strength in primary care, giving us immediate access to central-nervous-system and women's-health-care products."
Hassan said that Organon's schizophrenia drug asenapine was "very interesting" but would not make any projections on when that would be presented to regulators.
After the sale of Organon BioSciences, Akzo Nobel will concentrate on its chemicals and coatings division. "Akzo Nobel aims to grow in the most attractive areas of its coatings and chemicals portfolios through investments and acquisitions," the company said. M AFP
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