Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
While doctors debate risks of smallpox vaccination for the public, scientists are launching new efforts to find a safer shot. German researchers report successful animal tests of a milder smallpox vaccine that is believed to carry less risk of death and severe illness than the conventional vaccine. Separately, two Amer
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration scrambled to undo the public-relations damage caused when it blocked an international agreement to allow developing countries easier access to generic versions of prescription drugs to combat AIDS, malaria, cholera and other infectious diseases. Just hours after talks broke down la
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Roche Holding AG of Switzerland said it won t be able to meet full demand next year for a new AIDS drug designed for patients resistant to other treatments, limiting access to the widely anticipated therapy. The drug, called Fuzeon, has created much excitement among AIDS patients and doctors for the potent way it attac
KANO, Nigeria -- The filmmakers are stuck on the cliffhanger: Should rakish Babangida, who has HIV, marry the love of his life, Jamila, who doesn t? Or should he leave her at the altar and marry Mariya, the beautiful, HIV-positive street vendor? In Muslim northern Nigeria, that s a question of both script and scripture
FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- Gilead Sciences Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. for about $464 million and plans to develop the companies top HIV drugs as a combination treatment. The $6-a-share deal will be structured in two steps: a cash tender offer slated to close in the first half
Vanessa O'Connell, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
It is the major conundrum of public-service advertising: A beautiful, touching message to promote charity or an important public-health issue often gets shunted into the graveyard shift, shown only on late-night television and during other off-peak hours. That might have been the fate of a new commercial, Kids, intende
Kathryn Kranhold, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The days before Thanksgiving usually find Shawn Thorne working with pounds of exotic mushrooms, thinly slicing shiitakes, chanterelles, portobellos and oysters that will make a delectable gravy destined for discerning palates. That this year found him at the same task is a holiday story of serendipity and good will.
The $2.2 billion Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has issued its first checks, for programs in Ghana , Haiti and Tanzania , as officials try to demonstrate the effectiveness and accountability necessary to attract the billions more needed to stem the devastating epidemics.
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
New data show the world-wide AIDS epidemic is affecting more women, moving into new regions and worsening conditions of poverty in southern Africa. These are among the findings in what has become an annual compilation of grim statistics by the United Nations AIDS agency and the World Health Organization . This year,
Joel Baglole, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
OTTAWA -- Canada s moves to allow for medicinal use of marijuana have caused unexpected headaches here and prompted health officials to backpedal on some initiatives, angering marijuana users the government had aimed to appease. At the same time, Canadian justice officials are studying the possibility of decriminalizin
Among the greatest U.S. achievements during the last major round of world trade negotiations was the addition of intellectual property protections to the international system. This benefited premier U.S. industries such as entertainment, software and drugs and it also brought the rule of law and an incentive for innova
Jonathan Eig, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Douglas Milteer climbed into the school bus, plopped down and propped one foot on his seat. Most of the other kids knew better than to try to sit next to him. On this morning, though, a bigger, older boy told the third-grader to move and then tried to push the foot aside. Douglas launched himself at the boy. Arms flail
Phillip Day, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
SYDNEY, Australia -- Trade ministers from rich and poor countries talked up the prospects of reaching a deal to give developing countries access to inexpensive drugs to fight AIDS and other diseases after a two-day meeting here. But the major questions -- which countries will qualify and which diseases will be covered
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian group, said Roche Holding AG hasn t lived up to its promise to cut prices for a critical AIDS medicine in developing countries. The French nonprofit group released pricing information to support its argument, as well as data that it said show the Swiss drug maker c
Neil King Jr., Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Sharp differences over providing poor countries with access to inexpensive drugs for AIDS and other diseases promise to cloud this week s World Trade Organization summit. A drug-patent compromise is a top priority for trade ministers from the U.S., Canada , Mexico , Europe,
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WANZI VILLAGE, China -- Li Shouzhong s lifeblood was literally that. For two decades, the 60-year-old potato farmer sold his blood, using the money to build a mud-brick house and put his three children through school. I have given a water barrel s worth of blood, he says, showing a constellation of purple needle scars
David Bank, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates traveled to New Delhi to announce his charitable foundation will spend $100 million over the next decade to slow the spread of AIDS among truckers, soldiers and migrant laborers in the hopes of preventing an even more devastating epidemic in India . T
Ron Winslow, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
In an ambitious effort to lay out a global agenda for disease prevention, the World Health Organization issued a new report cataloging the most important risks to healthy life world-wide and offering prescriptions for addressing them on a national or regional basis. If individuals and governments take concerted steps a
Rachel Zimmerman and Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
-Activists Welcome AIDS-Drug Price Cuts, But Question the Announcement s Timing Merck & Co. , trying to remain one step ahead of AIDS activists and generic-drug competition, said it will cut the price of its new once-a-day pill Stocrin to less than $1 a day in the poorest and hardest-hit countries, a more than 30%
Marilyn Chase and Greg Hitt, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Bioterror Plans Must Weigh Vaccine s Dangers; White House Weighs Fund to Compensate Victims Gasps erupted from an audience of microbiologists as one of the government s top smallpox experts displayed slides of children covered with disfiguring pockmarks at a meeting in San Diego last month. The topic of his talk was bi
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- China will supply free medicine to thousands of rural villagers with AIDS, in the government s first substantial effort to treat patients amid a growing epidemic. The central and Henan provincial governments will jointly invest at least $4 million for drugs to treat several thousand people with AIDS in the c
David Bank, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
GENEVA -- With new projections indicating the AIDS epidemic is spreading even faster than expected, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria issued a call for governments and private donors to pledge an additional $2 billion for next year and $4.6 billion for 2004. Officials with the Global Fund, an inde
Gautam Naik, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- Profiteers diverted about $15 million (€15.2 million) of cut-price AIDS drugs meant for Africa to the European market, where they were sold for higher prices, Dutch authorities said. The Netherlands General Health Inspection Service said it was investigating a tiny Dutch company it identified as Asklepios for
Marilyn Chase Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
SAN DIEGO -- Researchers reported new findings suggesting that an AIDS drug being developed for patients who become resistant to conventional medicines will benefit wider groups of people with the disease. The drug, called Fuzeon, is one of a class of medicines known as fusion inhibitors that scientists are racing to d
Gautam Naik Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- GlaxoSmithKline PLC s drug Valtrex could help reduce transmission of genital herpes between heterosexual monogamous couples, according to a new study. The study, sponsored by the British drug maker and presented at a conference in San Diego, California, showed that a once daily dose of Valtrex cut transmissio
Marilyn Chase Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
It s one of the great mysteries in medicine: Despite being infected with HIV, some individuals haven t developed the deadly disease AIDS. Discovering how 1% or 2% of infected people keep the powerful virus at bay has inspired a race by some of the biggest names in AIDS research. Now, in a finding that could open up new
Ann Carrns, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Coca-Cola Co. said it will help its 40 bottlers in Africa offer health-care benefits for HIV and AIDS -- including access to costly drugs -- to their employees. The bottlers, which are mostly independently owned, employ a total of 58,000 people. So far, the eight major bottlers representing 19 African countries, compri
India has hindered innovation by not allowing patents for products. Though we have a large scientific pool, there is no encouragement to innovate. The U.S. is far ahead in intellectual property rights, which has helped their economy boom. This is not the propaganda of a multinational pharmaceutical company or its sub
Rachel Zimmerman Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Under pressure from public-health officials, several makers and vendors of condoms and sexual lubricants have stopped selling products treated with a popular spermicide, Nonoxynol-9, after studies indicating the substance can increase the risk of transmitting HIV, the AIDS virus, in certain situations. Drug giant
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities have approved domestic production of another AIDS drug, showing how the country s generic-drug makers are taking advantage of lax patent laws to produce medicines still under patent overseas. Shanghai Desano Biopharmaceutical Co., a closely held company, said it got approval from the coun
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- China could soon permit production of generic versions of AIDS drugs, following the lead of countries such as India and Brazil that have allowed local companies to make cheaper substitutes for costly imported medications.
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- The police detention of China s most prominent AIDS activist highlights the failure of a rigid government structure unable to cope with an increasingly diverse civil society. On Aug. 24, a Saturday, Wan Yanhai attended a gay and lesbian film showing at a Beijing bar and then had a bite to eat with two friend
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Secretary of State Colin Powell was jeered by activists at the final day of the U.N. World Summit, a sign of the tensions that plagued the 10-day gathering. The summit had been envisaged as a landmark opportunity to refocus the world s attention on poverty and destruction of the environmen
Roger Thurow, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
GABORONE, Botswana -- The sick are up before the sun. A bricklayer, a policeman, two secretaries, a tax collector, an auto mechanic, two soldiers, a water-meter reader and a college student crowd into the old tuberculosis ward at the Princess Marina Hospital. They join several dozen other patients seeking treatment of
Proponents of teaching abstinence to teens are getting a boost from an unlikely source: a sex-education curriculum that focuses on the health benefits of abstinence and ignores the moral issue altogether. The program, dubbed Worth the Wait, teaches kids that from a medical standpoint, there isn t such a thing as safe s
Barring any major reversal, the United Nations estimates that 70 million people will die of AIDS in the next 20 years -- mostly in Africa. South Africa can lay claim to being the country with the largest HIV-positive population in the world. So, with 5 million South Africans carrying the virus, you would think the dise
Beijing recently approved a version of the anti-AIDS drug AZT for domestic production and use, a sign that the regime is waking up to the extent of the epidemic within its own borders. However, it s unfortunate that a developing country is concentrating mainly on treatment of the already infected, using antiviral drugs
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- The Chinese government approved for the first time production and sale of an AIDS drug by a domestic company, potentially paving the way for cut-rate treatments to address a looming epidemic in China . Northeast General Pharmaceutical Factory, a state-owned drug manufacturer in the northern city of Shenyang,
Stephanie M. Horvath and Susan Carey Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration ordered Abbott Laboratories to improve its reporting of side effects among patients taking some of its drugs. The FDA , in a warning letter July 19, said the North Chicago, Ill., company didn t quickly and accurately report serious and unexpected adverse reactions among
Michelle Wallin, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BUENOS AIRES -- As Argentina endures a horrific economic crisis, bank lobbies have turned into high-risk workplaces. Just ask Francisco Bidetti, an account executive at a Bank of Nova Scotia branch here. In May, Mr. Bidetti was posted at the door to give customers bad news. The bank s Canadian parent company was haltin
David P. Hamilton, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended approval of a new drug against hepatitis B made by Gilead Sciences Inc., boosting the fortunes of a midsize biotechnology company on the cusp of maturity. The vote in favor of the drug, known as adefovir dipivoxil, isn t b
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
After more than a year and a half of internal debate, mining company Anglo American PLC announced Tuesday that it will begin providing its blue-collar mineworkers with the AIDS drug cocktails free of charge. The formal announcement, made in a telephone news briefing led by Anglo American Chief Executive Tony Trahar, fo
Antonio Regalado, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Richard Jorgensen s idea was simple enough: make bright purple petunias by splicing into the plants an extra copy of the gene that makes purple pigment. To his astonishment, the flowers bloomed white. That curious outcome defied genetic logic. After appearing on the cover of a prominent plant journal, the puzzling resu
Michael M. Phillips, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
A highly publicized fund set up at the behest of the United Nations has raised $2.1 billion to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases in the developing world. It has announced $1.6 billion in grants aimed at life-saving projects in 40 countries. But it has yet to give away a single penny. That is largely because of d
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
CHENGDU, China -- In 1997, researchers at the Enwei Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine started testing a capsule they had developed to slow the spread of AIDS. The compound, qiankunning, is a mixture of extracts from 14 herbs that have been used for centuries to fight infection and strengthen the immune system.
Michael M. Phillips, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 13 million people in southern Africa face imminent starvation unless the U.S. and other wealthy nations contribute more than $600 million in food, medicine and other emergency assistance over the next two months, the United Nations warned. Drought conditions have left six nations struggling to meet
In an otherwise excellent article on Russian prisons and HIV ( Infected Cells: As HIV Epidemic Hits Russia, Crux of Problem is Jail1, June 25), Mark Schoofs overlooks a significant problem: tuberculoses and multi-drug resistant tuberculoses (MDR-TB). Often referred to as Ebola with wings, TB is the largest single kille
Mark Schoofs and Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporters
BARCELONA, Spain -- Former President Clinton acknowledged, I was wrong about one of the most controversial AIDS decisions of his presidency: his refusal to lift the ban on federal funding of needle-exchange programs. A government panel advised him at the time that the practice, used to slow the spread of HIV among inje
If chanting slogans and booing speakers could magically create new innovative drugs, this week s Barcelona AIDS Conference could be considered a raging success. Activists have certainly put their moral righteousness on display as they pour abuse on pharmaceutical companies. On Tuesday they prevented a U.S. cabinet memb
BARCELONA, Spain -- The only way to end the AIDS epidemic is with a preventative vaccine. But a sobering and fascinating case study of one Boston patient, which quickly became the talk of the XIV International AIDS Conference here, suggests that making such a vaccine might be much more difficult than previously thought
BARCELONA, Spain -- Calling it one of the most shocking reports of the XIV International AIDS Conference, United Nations officials issued a new analysis that shows the number of children who will have lost at least one parent as a result of AIDS will climb to 25 million in 2010 from 13.4 million last year. In eight
BARCELONA, Spain -- New statistics from Russia suggest that the skyrocketing rate of HIV infection among drug users may be slowing, but research presented at an AIDS conference here suggests that an epidemic of sexually transmitted infections may be looming. Russia is a major focus of attention and fear because the
Mark Schoofs and Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporters
BARCELONA, Spain -- Activists stormed the stage at the International AIDS Conference here, temporarily halting an address by Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Yelling Shame, shame, the protesters carried signs accusing the U.S. of the murder and neglect of people with AIDS. They believe the U.S. is
Success stories about combating HIV/AIDS in Asia are hard to come by. The United Nations continues to sound a warning that AIDS in Asia may even dwarf the calamity the disease inflicted on Africa unless governments step up their responses. AIDS experts in Asia often point to the success of Thailand s mobilization in th
Global AIDS fund chief Richard Feachem is expected to deliver a message Tuesday at the international AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain , that many activists won t want to hear: Misspending money may be just as damaging as not spending enough. Dr. Feachem, the incoming head of the independent Global Fund to Fight AIDS
Mark Schoofs and Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporters
BARCELONA, Spain -- Along with a lack of money, one of the most intractable obstacles to slowing the spread of HIV is the emotionally charged, culturally entrenched ways that men and women interact sexually, researchers at the XIV International AIDS Conference said. The gender issue is the key driving force of the epid
LONDON -- The World Health Organization is expected to announce on Tuesday a joint assault against tuberculosis and HIV, twin epidemics that are fueling each other and causing an unprecedented surge in the death rate world-wide. So far, governments and other organizations have seen tuberculosis and HIV as two separate
A new study indicates a simple explanation for the spread of AIDS among young gay men, and particularly those who are African-American: Most don t know they are infected with the HIV virus, and many don t even feel at risk. The findings emerged from a federal study reported Monday at the International Aids Conference i
A new AIDS drug known as T-20 comes with two major distinctions: an ability to beat down the heartiest forms of the virus, and record-setting cost. Doctors and patient advocates call T-20, expected to be approved in the U.S. and Europe early next year, the most exciting advance in AIDS treatment in years. That s becaus
Mark Schoofs and Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporters
BARCELONA, Spain -- More than 14,000 doctors, activists and government officials -- including Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson -- converged here for the opening of the largest AIDS conference ever, amid hopeful research findings about the efficacy of treating patients in poor countries. But such fi
LONDON -- Prevention programs can play a significant role in reducing the rate of HIV infections, a new study conducted in Uganda shows. The study, published Friday in the British journal Lancet, was conducted between 1990 and 1999 in 15 neighboring villages in Uganda. It found that HIV incidence, or the number of new
Rachel Zimmerman and Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporters
With the world finally coughing up a bit of cash to address the global AIDS pandemic, an agonizing debate is resurfacing: How much should be spent to treat those already infected and how much should be spent on preventing others from getting infected? That question will be the centerpiece of the coming World AIDS Confe
LONDON -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit U.S. group, is expected Monday to file suit against the U.S. arm of GlaxoSmithKline PLC alleging that several patents for its AIDS drugs are invalid and that it has abused a monopoly in pricing those drugs. The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed in the U.S. District
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- A United Nations report delivered scathing words about China s massive AIDS epidemic, stating that the country s efforts to stem the disease have had an infinitesimally small impact. Titled HIV/AIDS: China s Titanic Peril, the 89-page report released Thursday portrays a government that has acknowledged the d
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
St. PETERSBURG -- When Alexander Multanovskiy was locked up in Kresty jail, a squalid, overcrowded brick complex built in the late 19th century, he blocked out the misery with heroin. The 25-year-old Russian believes that s how he contracted HIV, the AIDS virus, from one of his fellow inmates. We were using the same ne
Geeta Anand, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Overcoming some patent disputes, Abbott Laboratories Inc. and OraSure Technologies Inc. have agreed to jointly distribute a test that determines in 20 minutes whether someone has the virus that causes AIDS. OraSure s quick test, using just a drop of blood from a pin prick, stands in contrast to a standard HIV laborator
Gautam Naik, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- German scientists and the World Health Organization are expected to announce Monday the first oral drug in the battle against black fever, a debilitating disease that annually infects 500,000 people and kills 60,000. Black fever, whose medical name is visceral leishmaniasis, is a parasitic disease transmitted
If Peter Mugyenyi practiced medicine in the U.S., instead of Uganda , he d be a superstar. Square-shouldered and handsome, Dr. Mugyenyi is renowned throughout sub-Saharan Africa as an infectious-disease expert. He is also a local hero. As a young doctor, he fled Uganda ahead of Idi Amin s hooligan soldiers, jumping out
WASHINGTON -- A new White House plan to battle AIDS overseas shows the Bush administration scrambling again to get out in front of Congress, while coping with the same kind of internal rivalries that have plagued it on homeland security. About $500 million is expected to be committed during the next five years to a pro
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Cerus Corp. and Baxter International Inc. won European regulatory approval for a system that rids blood platelets of nearly all pathogens, a process that could usher in a new level of safety to blood transfusions. Blood-safety experts say the process, which uses an ultraviolet light to trigger a chemical reaction that
Michael M. Phillips, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WAKISO, Uganda -- Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill, trying to figure out how to spend a proposed $10 billion increase in foreign aid to developing countries, says there are no silver bullet solutions to poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet as he travels the continent, he keeps offering them. In
David Bank And Rebecca Buckman, Staff Reporters Of The Wall Street Journal
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has purchased shares in nine big pharmaceutical companies valued at nearly $205 million -- an investment likely to attract attention more for its symbolism than its size. The foundation, the nation s largest with an endowment of $24.2 billion from Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gate
Andrea Petersen, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
The current vaccine shortage is alarming parents and pediatricians who fear children are going unprotected for preventable diseases. But the crisis is worrisome for adults too. Shots and the illnesses they prevent may seem like kids stuff, but such diseases are far more lethal for grown-ups. Even before the present sho
Sarah Lueck, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
Scientists have infected rhesus monkeys with polio, coaxed them into cocaine addiction, shot them into space and cloned them. Researchers like working with them for a simple reason: their great similarity to people. Now, though, rhesus monkeys have become so scarce and expensive that scientists are forced to look for a
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
The AIDS virus is able to corrupt an important police force of the human immune system, hiding in protective cells that normally are so efficient at fighting disease that they are known as Natural Killer, or NK, cells. By hiding in NK cells, the virus finds a haven that thwarts AIDS drugs, further complicating the ques
For 13 years, Stanley Crooke has struggled to convince skeptics that he and his company have mastered an entirely new way to make drugs. It s finally just about show time. Within the next year or so, Dr. Crooke s company, Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (www.isip.com1), is likely to have results from two late-stage human tri
Our only daughter became a teenager yesterday causing me to search for a sanctuary for the next seven years and to pay more attention to matters like a House committee approving a sexual abstinence-only measure. The first is unrealistic; so is the second. Abstinence-only programs have become sacrosanct theology for the
Robert Tomsho, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
Blacks and Hispanics with the AIDS virus are far less likely than their white counterparts to participate in clinical trials or to receive experimental medicines for the illness, a new research report says. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, adds to a growing body of evidence that racial dispa
Ann Zimmerman And David Armstrong, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Teresa Hohu received a letter from Longs Drug Stores Co. in January suggesting that she switch from her daily Fosamax pill for osteoporosis to a new weekly dosage. The letter heralded weekly Fosamax as an important development and was signed Your Longs Pharmacist. Ms. Hohu, a 76-year old in Hilo, Hawaii, found the lett
Robert Block, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- President Thabo Mbeki s U-turn on anti-AIDS drugs has been powerful medicine for the country s ailing currency, the rand. One of the most-traded emerging-market currencies, the rand hit a four-and-a-half month high against the dollar on Friday, at 10.57 to the dollar. The currency has rise
Robert Block, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- President Thabo Mbeki delivered his strongest message yet on AIDS, putting his personal imprimatur on a dramatic shift in his government s approach to the disease. In an interview published Wednesday in Independent Newspapers, South Africa s largest newspaper publishing house, Mr. Mbeki sa
David Bank, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
MESA, Ariz. -- Simba has had a good life since he retired from the Ice Capades more than two decades ago. The 31-year-old chimpanzee lives here with five other chimps in a clean enclosure shaded from the desert sun. For lunch, he eats half a melon, six oranges, a bunch of spinach and a head of lettuce. His caregivers c
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Bolstering the case for AIDS drug treatment in developing nations, the World Health Organization for the first time said that the use of AIDS medicines is medically essential and is backing its announcement with specific treatment guidelines, practical monitoring standards and simplified regimen recommendations. By
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
An AIDS drug being jointly developed by Roche Holding AG and Trimeris Inc. showed further promise in fighting the virus among patients who don t respond well to other therapies. The drug, called T-20, is the most advanced of a new class of AIDS treatments called fusion inhibitors. Though researchers say it isn t a pana
David Hamilton, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Back in 1986, San Francisco AIDS researcher Jay Levy found that the immune system in a few rare individuals produces a mysterious substance that prevents HIV, the deadly AIDS virus, from replicating. For more than 15 years, he and others have struggled to identify it. Now, the race is heating up. Thanks to new technolo
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
In a controversial move that could have wide ramifications for how companies in poor countries handle AIDS, mining giant Anglo American PLC has put on hold a feasibility study to provide AIDS drugs to its African work force, according to people familiar with the situation. When it disclosed its plans for the study a ye
Geoff Winestock, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. acknowledged that it allowed stocks of two discounted AIDS drugs to dry up in Kenya , forcing some patients to discontinue treatment or switch to other less effective drugs. The failure is embarrassing for a pharmaceutical company that won praise for its bold decision a year ago to offer its
Whether you have acne, cancer or lower back pain, there is a clinical trial somewhere looking for people like you. The problem is they can t find you. There are currently about 6,000 new drugs, procedures and treatments being tested in 80,000 different locations around the country. But according to a soon-to-be-release
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
DONGGUAN VILLAGE, China -- The rising toll of AIDS in China -- and the sluggish official response to it -- is spawning a new wave of Chinese activists. Li Dan, a lanky graduate student from Beijing, has traveled to this remote AIDS-stricken village in central China with an ambitious proposal: to build a factory to help
Sarah Lueck, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. supply of smallpox vaccine is much larger than previously thought, increasing pressure on federal health officials to decide whether it should be administered in advance of a bioterrorist attack, especially to emergency personnel. Officials from Aventis Pasteur, a unit of France s Aventis Co., co
Rachel Zimmerman and Robert Frank, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Jourmal
BANGKOK, Thailand -- In a small laboratory hidden in this city s back streets, chemist Krisana Kraisintu is stirring up one of the world s cheapest AIDS drugs -- and reigniting the debate over the cost of treating AIDS in poor countries. Thailand s state-run drug maker plans to market next month a pill combining three
Scott Hensley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Johnson & Johnson is pushing into new drug territory with an agreement to acquire Tibotec-Virco NV, a closely held company with several antiviral medicines in development, for about $320 million (€362.9 million) in cash and assumed debt. Tibotec-Virco, based in Mechelen, Belgium
Jill Carroll, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Americans access to health care didn t improve during the recent years when the economy was strong, and rising medical costs bear most of blame, a new study has found. The report, by the Washington-based Center for Studying Health System Change, said that about 15% of Americans either didn t seek or delay
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal
The World Health Organization will announce Wednesday a list of 40 quality AIDS drugs, a move that will throw the group into the fray over patented and generic AIDS medicines. The list, which will include both patented drugs and generic versions, lends legitimacy to generics by offering WHO s seal of approval, regardle
David P. Hamilton, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The Institute for Human Virology, a center of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, plans to begin a clinical trial of a therapeutic anti-AIDS vaccine developed by a unit of Aventis Co. of France , the first such human test of the treatment in the U.S. The trial, scheduled to begin later this month, will
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Propped up on his dormitory bed, Sanjay Basu sets out on an unusual task: telephoning every pharmacist in New Hampshire. Hi, I m calling from MIT down in Boston, says the 21-year-old neuroscience major, repeating a pitch he s made hundreds of times. I m part of a nonprofit pharmacy network that dist
Michael M. Phillips, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- About 50 countries are expected to submit grant proposals this week to the new global fund to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis , but fund officials acknowledge there probably isn t enough money to go around. The amount of money in the fund is currently about $700 million -- well below the $2 billion p
Cipro, the powerful antibiotic famous for its defense against the anthrax attacks, has met its match in some new types of gonorrhea. Federal health officials say that gonorrhea strains resistant to Cipro, the brand name for ciprofloxacin, have migrated to the U.S. West Coast from Hawaii and Southeast Asia. They warned
A team of scientists has discovered how the deadly Ebola virus hijacks human cells, opening potential avenues to new drugs and a vaccine. Ebola kills roughly 80% of those who contract it, usually causing them to bleed to death in a few weeks. Since its discovery in 1976, the virus has killed 1,000 people, according to
SEATTLE -- In a finding with wide implications for many medications, two independent research teams found that people who inherit certain genetic patterns are susceptible to a potentially fatal reaction to a commonly used AIDS drug, Ziagen . While preliminary, the finding underscores one of the biggest promises of gen
Wall Street Journal - Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter
SEATTLE -- For the first time, Merck & Co. has unveiled how its closely watched experimental AIDS vaccine acts in humans, and several top scientists hailed the data as encouraging. In its presentation of early-stage data, Merck also showed how it hopes to overcome a unique challenge posed by its vaccine candidate.
Chris Adams, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- The National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department are planning to merge their research efforts for developing HIV vaccines, diffusing criticism that the two agencies were duplicating efforts. At the same time, the NIH said it won t proceed with a proposed trial to test a potential HIV vaccine,
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
SEATTLE -- By genetically fingerprinting the AIDS and hepatitis C viruses, researchers from China and New York have shown that the world s most-populous nation is suffering from distinct epidemics of these blood-borne microbes. Separately, another team of researchers showed just how fast HIV mutates, finding
Mark Schoofs and Michael Waldholz, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
SEATTLE -- The pipeline for HIV drugs is getting fatter, adding several promising -- though still early-stage -- new compounds. Some of these experimental drugs, unveiled Monday at a large AIDS science meeting here called the Ninth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, attack the AIDS virus in new wa
JOHANNESBURG -- It is a decision that will be hailed by many. Medecines Sans Frontiers, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions have announced that they will break South African law to import generic versions of AIDS drugs to South Africa from Brazil . A bold decision, certainl
Michael Waldholz, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Trimeris Inc., a small U.S. drug developer, and Roche Holding AG of Switzerland reported that an AIDS drug they are jointly developing showed a benefit in fighting the virus among patients who weren t responding well to some existing therapies. The drug, called T-20, is viewed as a medicine that might be especially use
Ciphergen Biosystems Inc., a maker of protein-analysis equipment, said it will assist two AIDS-research laboratories in molecular studies of individuals who appear resistant to HIV in exchange for commercial rights to potential discoveries. Ciphergen, of Fremont, Calif., plans to use sophisticated detectors dubbed pro
MIAMI -- Not long after he arrived at predominantly black Mount Tabor Missionary Baptist Church in 1989, Rev. George McRae was invited to visit the local county hospital. The chaplain there, who was white, didn t disclose the purpose of the meeting. Rev. McRae was startled when he entered a ward filled with black men a
Mark Schoofs and Michael M. Phillips, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Poor and beset with the world s biggest tuberculosis epidemic, India seemed a perfect candidate for free TB drugs offered through the World Health Organization . But, over the past year, the WHO has turned down India s request -- twice.
Michale M. Phillips, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- The World Bank doubled to $1 billion the amount of money it has dedicated to fighting AIDS in Africa. The $500 million that the bank s board added to its war chest Thursday comes on top of the $2 billion now pledged to a separate U.N.-inspired global health fund aimed at AIDS, tuberculosis an
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Early observations from a study on the feasibility of diluting smallpox vaccine indicate the U.S. can stretch its existing stockpile in the event of a bioterror attack, senior government officials said. The country has only 15 million doses of the vaccine on hand. Last October, the National Institutes of Health launche
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced several new grants to help fund HIV/AIDS prevention. One $20 million gift to the nonprofit Population Council will support large-scale trials of a seaweed-based gel called Carraguard, a vaginal microbicide that is being tested on women to see if it will help block HIV,
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
A red seaweed used as a thickening agent in ice cream, toothpaste and baby formula may be the next great hope for millions of poor women seeking to protect themselves against the virus that causes AIDS. Human clinical trials of Carraguard, a gel made from seaweed that grows along the coasts of Chile and
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal
Doctors Without Borders, the Nobel-Prize winning humanitarian group, has defied South African patent law by importing inexpensive generic AIDS drugs manufactured in Brazil for use in a township clinic outside of Capetown. The group, joined by local AIDS activists in Johannesburg, called on the South African government
A prominent AIDS researcher says a rivalry between U.S. government research organizations has led to a massive waste of money and other resources, exemplified by two proposed trials of a potential HIV vaccine. In the current issue of the scientific journal Nature, John P. Moore of the Weill Medical College of Cornell U
In a setback for pharmaceuticals companies, organizers of the new Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria named a mining executive to the fund s board, rejecting candidates from the drug industry. The decision to name Goran Lindahl, deputy chairman of Anglo American PLC, one of the largest private employers
Pharmaceuticals company Merck & Co. is considering running monkey trials of an experimental AIDS vaccine developed by researchers at the Institute of Human Virology at the Baltimore campus of the University of Maryland, a nonprofit research laboratory run by Robert Gallo, the co-discoverer of the AIDS virus. An
Dan Barouch was almost getting bored. A young researcher at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Barouch had helped lead one of the most prominent AIDS vaccine trials in recent years. Starting in 1999, he and his mentor -- veteran HIV scientist Norman Letvin, also at Harvard -- immunized eight monkeys with an experimental vacci
David Bank, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Eight philanthropic foundations have committed more than $50 million for a pilot program to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus in developing countries by treating mothers in addition to their newborns. The foundations, which are expected to announce the initiative Friday, intend to eventually raise $
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