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A New Technique May Democratise Vaccine Production
Making vaccines often involves growing bugs—and these days the bugs in question are frequently genetically modified. There are, with good reason, strict regulations about the use and transport of such modified organisms, for fear that something bad might escape and thrive in the wild. And this has led to vaccine-producing bugs being grown in secure, centralised “foundries”, whence their products are distributed to the wider world.
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- Health Care
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- vaccines
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Indian Millionaire’s Vaccine Maker Hunts for Acquisitions
“I do see vaccine companies coming up on the block whether it could be in India or it could be abroad,” Adar Poonawalla, head of Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., said in an interview in the company’s headquarters in Pune, India. “This is the lull before the storm. You are going to see either acquisitions or mergers.”
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- Health Care
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- South Asia
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- vaccines
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Portable Chemical Cooler Can Maintain Cold Chain for Vaccines Which Will Save Millions of Lives
A new portable cooling device to improve vaccine transportation in developing countries has been announced as the UK winner of the 2016 James Dyson Award.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Stopping the Spread of ‘Superbugs’: Six Promising Solutions
The use, overuse and misuse of antimicrobial drugs has created resistant strains of bacteria that could be a greater threat in poorer nations than in richer ones, due to the absence of monitoring and surveillance systems for drug resistance and lack of regulation. And if new antibiotics become available, they are likely to be expensive and unaffordable in the developing world. Here are six ways the global health community can respond.
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- Health Care
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The Price of Zika? About $4 Million Per Child
TO TALK ABOUT Zika virus control is to talk about money. Vaccine development, mosquito abatement, and even the distribution of DEET repellant takes (and currently lacks) major federal dollars. When, last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services declared Zika a public health emergency in Puerto Rico, it was in part a means to a better-funded end.
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- Health Care
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Viewpoint: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
In October of 2015, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) released an open letter with the title Make Medicines for People Not for Profit. The letter – now signed by a wide range of academics and researchers, including Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz – issues a call for a “global research and development (R&D) agreement to ensure access to affordable vaccines, medicines and life-saving technologies for all.”
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- Health Care
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- vaccines
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Austrian Biotech Plans Zika Vaccine Clinical Trials in 12 Months
An Austrian biotech company working with the Institut Pasteur said on Tuesday it planned to start clinical trials with an experimental Zika vaccine in the next 12 months, marking a further acceleration of research in the field.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Swine Flu Adds to Brazil’s Zika Worries
Brazil, which will host the Olympics beginning Aug. 5, was already beset by economic problems, a political crisis and the Zika outbreak. Now it's experiencing its worst swine flu outbreak since 2009. Dr. Melvin Sanicas, a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, wonders if this will be the crisis that forces a change to the Olympic schedule.
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- Health Care