Nearly 2.5 million children die every year from diseases for which vaccine development or distribution is faltering. Drug makers have shown little interest in vaccines that could stem this tide of childhood deaths because they aren t profitable. Now, a handful of Western nations and international bodies is moving ahead
Ever since the human genome was deciphered seven years ago, companies have been rushing to sell genetic tests directly to consumers. But buyers, beware: Many of the claims that accompany these tests are not fully supported by science. Some 1,400 genetic tests are currently available. There are tests that aim to identif
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Hundreds of Republicans arriving to hear Mike Huckabee speak this weekend were greeted by a man in prison stripes with a rubber mask and this sign: Hey Mike, Thanks for the Pardon. It was a reference to a convicted rapist who was paroled (not pardoned) when Mr. Huckabee was Arkansas governor, and wh
Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com and Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com
As consternation simmers over a recent downward revision in the estimated global AIDS toll, U.S. health officials are finalizing statistics that are expected to show the number of people infected with HIV in the U.S. every year has been up to 50% higher than previously estimated, according to researchers familiar with
Many patients know that grapefruit juice doesn t mix with certain popular drugs -- notably cholesterol-busting statins such as Zocor and Lipitor. Too much Citrus paradisi, and the blood levels of some medicines can rise to toxic levels. But the grapefruit effect may have a silver lining. Research suggests the fruit s a
Global estimates of the AIDS epidemic this year were revised to 33.2 million, down 6.3 million from 39.5 million projected last year, due to improved data gathering, according to AIDS experts at the United Nations and World Health Organization . An estimated 2.5 million people became newly infected this year, and 2.1 m
In a few weeks action star Jackie Chan will debut in a surprising role as front man for the first major TV campaign in China to encourage condom use to reduce HIV infection. I love movies, and I love my life, Chan says in the public service ad. A movie needs danger, he says from the set of a martial arts film featuring
SEATTLE -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation tomorrow will launch an AIDS-prevention partnership with the Chinese government, an unusual approach that underscores the philanthropic group s concern about the risk the deadly virus poses to the world s most populous nation. While the number of HIV-infected people in
GlaxoSmithKline PLC joined the growing number of parties suing Abbott Laboratories over its 2003 decision to raise the price of an AIDS drug fivefold. Four big pharmacy chains and one pharmaceutical wholesaler filed a lawsuit against Abbott last month, alleging that it abused its monopoly in the U.
Sarah Rubenstein, sarah.rubenstein@wsj.com and Mark Schoofs, mark.schoofs@wsj.com
SEATTLE -- New evidence suggests that Merck & Co. s experimental HIV vaccine may have made its recipients more vulnerable to the deadly AIDS virus -- and has prompted researchers to warn participants in other trials that similarly made vaccines for a range of other diseases might also increase their susceptibility
Four big pharmacy chains and one pharmaceutical wholesaler filed a lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories , alleging the drug maker abused its monopoly in the market for AIDS drugs when it raised the price of one of its products fivefold in 2003. Abbott has already been sued by two AIDS patients and the Service Employees
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Vic Wood s walk-in clinic here sees patients six days a week and logs roughly 15,000 visits a year. Its sparsely furnished waiting room is packed much of the 11-hour day with people seeking care for conditions ranging from sore throats to chest pains. Despite the booming business, Dr. Wood and his st
Merck & Co. could break new ground on the AIDS-fighting front this week with the Food and Drug Administration s expected approval of Isentress, a new type of drug that could be especially useful for patients who no longer respond to many existing treatments. Yet despite the continuing need and market for HIV trea
Linhai, China - When a small drug maker here got Food and Drug Administration approval for an AIDS drug this past summer, the Chinese pharmaceutical industry quietly passed an important milestone. As far as the agency can tell, it is the first time a Chinese company has won permission to export finished pills to the U.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today will start a $100 million fund to nurture unorthodox approaches to global health, inviting scientists to bid for small, quickly awarded grants. While other philanthropies and government entities have dabbled in backing offbeat medical experiments, the Gates initiative is amon
Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com and Mark Schoofs, mark.schoofs@wsj.com
In a major setback, one of the leading experimental AIDS vaccines not only failed to prevent test subjects from becoming infected with HIV, but it didn t offer any indication it might delay the onset of full-blown AIDS, which had been a key hope. The collapse of the trial leaves Merck & Co. , which had spent a d
For years, surgeons and patient advocates have battled over whether new protections are needed for people who give away a kidney or a portion of liver. Now, a sweeping set of proposed guidelines on living organ donation hopes to take a step in that direction. But transplant surgeons across the country are balking. The
BUNGOMA DISTRICT, Kenya -- The recent finding that circumcision dramatically reduces the risk of contracting HIV has global health authorities mobilizing to offer the procedure broadly in Africa. But introducing mass circumcision presents challenges, epitomized by a young man in western Kenya. Kennedy Sikuku went t
An Indian court rejected Novartis AG s attempt to change Indian law to make it easier to patent drugs, a case that underscores the growing tension between public-health interests and intellectual-property rights. Novartis said the ruling would discourage development of medicines in India and abroad. Public-health activ
First the good news. The ordeal of the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor, incarcerated in Libya since 1999 on trumped-up charges of infecting more than 400 children with HIV, is finally over. The bad news is that the West wavered for eight long years while the nurses were sentenced twice to death only then t
Abbott Laboratories dropped a lawsuit against a French AIDS-activist group after weathering bad publicity about the unusual suit. The Abbott Park, Ill., drug maker said it would withdraw its suit after meeting with representatives from Act-Up Paris, an AIDS group, at a conference in
THE WHITE HOUSE -- The first lady s record is -- or nearly always is -- better than the president s, because she doesn t have every difficult issue. Laura Bush is in her East Wing office discussing the role a first lady should play. She s wearing a dark suit with white-stitch trim and sitting on a couch facing shelves
HONG KONG -- A Chinese government department said late Thursday that the British editor of a popular newsletter on development and social issues in China was in violation of the country s laws on conducting surveys and confirmed that he was asked to stop publishing. Nicholas Young, the 52-year-old founding editor of Ch
A $37-million clinical trial funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Africa showed that using diaphragms as a barrier to HIV failed to prevent infection, in the latest in a growing list of disappointments in efforts to prevent AIDS. The Gates Foundation has long given priority to funding efforts aimed at pre
HONG KONG -- A widely read newsletter on Chinese development and human-rights issues based in Beijing has been shut by public security officials, according to its founder, amid what some people say may be increased scrutiny of foreign-funded nonprofit organizations working in China . Beijing-based Nicholas Young, w
MILE, China -- Xia Yonggang can t forget the four-year-old boy who showed up at his clinic here in southwestern China six years ago. From the boy s fever and cough, Dr. Xia guessed he had an upper-respiratory-tract infection and gave him an injection of the antibiotic cefradine. Ten minutes later, the boy started breat
WASHINGTON -- The most recent U.S. surgeon general told Congress that the Bush administration routinely blocked him from speaking out on controversial issues including stem-cell research, emergency contraception and sexual abstinence and pressured him to support an ideological, theological agenda. Dr. Richard Carmona,
Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline PLC, has been in the hot seat since May, when an article in the New England Journal of Medicine raised concerns about the safety of the diabetes treatment Avandia, his company s second-biggest selling drug. In the article, cardiologist Steven Nissen analyzed 42 pa
For 37 years, Nobuko Kajitani worked as a textile conservator at New York s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She lived modestly, shunning restaurants, walking to work and recycling shopping bags and wrapping paper. Ms. Kajitani retired in 2003. Two years later, she stunned Manhattan s Asian Cultural Council by pledging a $1
Big American philanthropies are renewing their commitment to fighting AIDS in India , even though the country is expected to sharply cut previous estimates of the epidemic s size later today. India s National AIDS Control Organization, or NACO, is expected to announce that the number of Indians infected with HIV, the v
In zoos and museums, in New York s Times Square and online, apocalyptic numbers are ticking away. The national debt clock, revived after a two-year hiatus now that deficits are piling up again, may soon need a new digit to keep pace. An AIDS clock, run by the United Nations, records more than 40 million sufferers world
Pfizer Inc. s pipeline was dealt a surprise blow last night, when the FDA delayed the approval of one of its most interesting drug prospects, a new type of medicine for HIV. It was a significant setback, and came on the heels of another announcement by the New York-based drug maker yesterday that it would halt some s
Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults believe poorer countries should be allowed to break companies patents on HIV/AIDS drugs if doing so would help them treat more of their population, according to a new poll. When asked specifically about a recent move by Brazil to break the patent on an AIDS drug made by
Breaking what has become a taboo in the pharmaceutical industry s respectful relations with AIDS activists, Abbott Laboratories has sued a French AIDS group for launching a cyber attack against its Web site. The unusually aggressive legal move comes on top of other controversial measures Abbott has taken, such as quint
Bono and Bob aren t happy with the G-8 s new Africa agenda. A maze, complained U2 s lead singer, while Mr. Geldof chimed in with not serious...a farce, a total farce. The rockers are so obsessed with dollar figures that they missed the real story out of last week s G-8 summit in Germany . The richest nations recog
President Bush vowed to push ahead with immigration reform following his meeting with Bulgarian President Parvanov. President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with President Parvanov of Bulgaria Archaeological Museum Sofia, Bulgaria 10:35 A.M. (Local) PRESIDENT PARVANOV: (As translated.) Distinguished memb
WASHINGTON -- The House Appropriations Committee unveiled a $34.24 billion foreign aid and State Department budget that would cut $700 million from President Bush s 2008 request while seeking to liberalize restrictions on providing aid to family planning organizations overseas. Military aid to Pakistan
In the fight against AIDS, people tend to pit abstinence and fidelity against condoms ( Why an AIDS Fight Faces Delay1, Politics & Economics, May 21). That is a false dichotomy. The dynamics of HIV transmission vary from country to country, and HIV prevention strategies must be tailored to respond in each context.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Laura, thanks for that short introduction. (Laughter.) I m proud to be introduced by my wife. I love her dearly. She s a great First Lady. (Applause.) And I appreciate the chance to address the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign. This is a fine organization and it s an impor
When 10 policemen barged into the Beijing apartment of Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan last Friday morning and told them that they were under house arrest and prohibited from leaving the country, it was more than just the latest incident in a long-standing crackdown against human-rights activists. It was also an indication of h
The World Health Organization s Assembly will wrap up its annual meeting in Geneva on Friday, and so far, there s something missing: the cascade of countries that were predicted to follow Thailand and Brazil down the path of seizing drug patents. It wasn t for lack of encouragement in some quarters.
WASHINGTON -- When Democrats took over Congress, liberal AIDS activists thought they would finally see the end to a requirement that the federal government spend hundreds of millions of dollars to promote sexual abstinence in the developing world. The activists say the conservative-backed rule, passed in 2003 by the Re
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Welcoming a visitor to his apartment on the outskirts of this city, Igshaan Sanie Davids wore only silky maroon boxer shorts festooned with brightly colored ducks and the slogan Totally Quackers, his ample belly sloping out far beyond the waistband. Tattoos of the Statue of Liberty, the Ameri
Your May 7 editorial Thai Flu Moves South requires that facts be set straight about Thailand s decision to use compulsory licensing on three life-saving drugs. First, the use of compulsory licensing is permissible under the World Trade Organization s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreeme
Raymond C. Offenheiser - President, Oxfam America, Washington
Quite contrary to your editorial s assertion ( Abbott s Bad Precedent, April 30), the biggest winners in Thailand s decision to issue compulsory licenses are the poor and sick who would otherwise continue to be denied affordable medicines. Stricter intellectual property rules do not drive drug research for diseases tha
The U.S. Trade Representative recently named the usual suspects for its annual Special 301 list of countries whose disregard for intellectual property rights merit special attention. In addition to perennials like China , Russia and India , Thailand -- the so
Patents are only worth the paper they re printed on unless governments protect them. So when Thailand browbeat Abbott Laboratories into dropping its prices for an HIV/AIDS drug last month by threatening to break its patent -- with nearly no international repercussions -- we were alarmed. Now there s reason to be do
SAO PAULO -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Friday signed a compulsory license, breaking the patent on an anti-retroviral AIDS drug made by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Brazil s government issued the groundbreaking decree after rejecting a Merck offer to sell the drug at $1.10 per pill,
Four former executives of Serono Inc. were found not guilty by a federal court jury of charges they offered bribes to doctors in exchange for writing prescriptions for an AIDS drug sold by the company. The executives, who all faced charges of criminal conspiracy, are John Bruens of San Diego; Mary Stewart of North Ando
National borders don t mean much to diseases, but they do when it comes to drug patents. Most governments respect patents because without them drug companies would have no incentive to develop new therapies. So what happens when a country seizes patents, heedless of the broader consequences? We re about to find out. Ea
James Cornelius began his tenure as permanent chief executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. by signing a drug-development deal with Pfizer Inc., announcing first-quarter earnings and telling investors that he is trying to run the company as an independent business. But he left the door open to selling the New York dr
Nicholas Zamiska, nicholas.zamiska@wsj.com and James Hookway, james.hookway@awsj.com
BANGKOK, Thailand -- This January, the Thai government sent the kind of letter that every global pharmaceutical company dreads to receive. Dear patent holder, read the letter to Abbott Laboratories , maker of the AIDS drug Kaletra .
Nicholas Zamiska, nicholas.zamiska@wsj.com and James Hookway, james.hookway@awsj.com
Abbott Laboratories has backed away from a confrontation with the Thai government over patent protection for a popular AIDS treatment, a concession that could embolden other developing countries pushing big drug makers to lower the price of their products. Abbott is offering to sell the latest version of its AIDS dru
The Food and Drug Administration said it was concerned about a proposed new class of HIV drugs that have been associated with increases in the risk of liver damage, lymphoma and infections. The agency raised its concerns ahead of a meeting of an outside panel of medical experts that will meet Tuesday to make recommenda
In a sign of compromise, Abbott Laboratories agreed to sell its AIDS medicine Kaletra to many developing nations at a price below generic versions. But as a show of continued resistance in a dispute with the Thai government, Abbott said it wasn t reversing its decision to pull new drug applications in that
A new UnitedHealth Group Inc. policy that threatens to fine doctors for referring patients to out-of-network laboratories for tests is mushrooming into a bitter dispute between the health-insurance giant and many of the 520,000 physicians in its networks nationwide. Most health plans are designed so their members pay m
MAPUTO, Mozambique -- In the Hulene quarter of this former Portuguese colonial capital, private minibuses swerve around holes carved in seas of mud. Metal sheets provide shelter for thousands packed in without electricity or sanitation. Illiteracy and HIV rates are shockingly high. The stench and deprivation take the b
ELDORET, Kenya -- Just beyond the morgue of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Dr. Joe Mamlin, a professor of medicine at Indiana University, questions his staff on their latest progress in the war on AIDS. How much food are we harvesting today? he asks. How many people are we feeding? Workers till the fields at
If you care about property rights -- or access to new medicine for the world s poor -- keep your eye on the current fight over Thailand s attempt to confiscate drug patents. The brawl is getting messier by the day. In the latest news, the Journal reports that Abbott Laboratories has decided not to market any new medi
A decision by Abbott Laboratories not to launch any new medicines in Thailand raises the stakes in a growing battle over patents between multinational drug companies and the country s military-installed government. The unusual tactic also puts Abbott in the awkward position of refusing to sell drugs for sick people in
Abbott Laboratories has decided against launching any new medicines in Thailand in response to the military-installed government s decision to revoke the company s patent for its blockbuster AIDS drug, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. drug maker has also withdrawn its current drug applicatio
Thailand s seizures of foreign drug patents earlier this year elicited cheers from the usual crowd of anti-patent hooligans. That s not serious, per se. But by letting Bangkok s actions go unchallenged -- and in some official quarters, by supporting them -- a dangerous precedent now risks being set. If you don t believ
Jeanne Whalen, jeanne.whalen@wsj.com and Peter Wonacott, peter.wonacott@wsj.com
When charitable groups accused Novartis AG of jeopardizing the supply of inexpensive medicine to poor countries late last year, the Swiss drug giant thought it could swiftly win over its critics. Instead, the fight is only gathering momentum, with world leaders and politicians jumping in to rebuke the company. Novartis
There have always been dissenters from the medical orthodoxy on AIDS, but the Internet and sympathetic politicians in Africa have given them remarkable influence over the past few years. As a result, in parts of Africa medical authority is no longer revered, and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly portrayed as cr
After a dearth of new drugs for people infected with HIV, this year promises a bumper crop of medicines that may help combat rising resistance to older therapies. Two of the experimental medicines take entirely new approaches in thwarting the HIV virus; a third overcomes resistant viruses by taking a new tack on an enz
The crusade against drug patents was once fought in the halls of the World Trade Organization. No more. By seizing patents for HIV/AIDs treatments, and now, heart disease, Thailand has asserted that governments have the right to take intellectual property wherever and whenever they please. Innovation, however, isn t fr
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africa, burdened with one of the world s major HIV/AIDS epidemics, unveiled plans for its biggest AIDS vaccine trial. The government-backed South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative said the trial will be conducted on 3,000 HIV-negative people from 18 to 35 years old. It will test whethe
In a blow to new AIDS-prevention technologies, independent safety monitors halted a major study in Africa and India of an anti-HIV gel after women who used it developed more HIV infections than women who used a placebo gel. Topical anti-HIV gels, called microbicides, have received a big push by governments, advocates a
HONG KONG - A decision by Thailand s new, military-installed government to increase access to drugs by suspending patent protections on a heart-disease treatment and an HIV medication highlights a growing tension over intellectual-property rights versus public-health interests. The decision was criticized by the pharma
After years of fighting HIV/AIDS, the time has come to develop a long-term strategy for tackling the pandemic, the head of the global fund set up to fight the disease said. As we get the fire engine to the scene and begin to put out the blaze, which I think is what is happening, our attention now must begin to focus on
Fast-emerging threats to the blood supply -- including infectious diseases from abroad and newly recognized risks of transfusion -- are raising safety concerns and threatening to shrink the supply of eligible blood donors. The chances of getting HIV or hepatitis C from donated blood have been all but eliminated thanks
In the fall of 2003, Abbott Laboratories grew worried about new competition to its flagship AIDS drug, Kaletra . Then it seized on an unusual weapon that helped Kaletra s global sales top $1 billion a year, even as it exposed Abbott to criticism that it was endangering patients.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.