Gwynne Dyer: No Ebola vaccine because "nobody is willing to pay for it."

[Fred Sanders]

http://www.straight.com/news/702361/gwynne-dyer-ebola-and-economics-infection

"It could get much worse. If Ebola successfully made the jump to a more prosperous, densely populated country like Nigeria, whose citizens travel all over the world, the current 800 recorded deaths could become 8,000, or 80,000, or even more. And the worst of it is that there is no effective vaccine or treatment for Ebola.

Let me rephrase that. There is no approved vaccine or treatment for Ebola. There are candidates, some of which have shown promising results when tested on non-human primates. But they haven’t gone through the full testing process that is necessary before they are approved for human use, because nobody was willing to pay for it.

The normal procedure in the United States, home to more than half of the world’s major drug companies (“Big Pharma”), is that basic research for new drugs may be paid for by government grants or even by private philanthropy (like Bill Gates’s $200 million donation for research on a malaria vaccine), but the work of bringing the drugs to market is left to the commercial companies. All too often, they simply can’t be bothered."

______________________________


Independent Canadian journalist Gwynne Dyer writes a column on international affairs which is published in over 175 papers in at least 45 countries.

[The Magistrate]

1. One Of The Reason Market Profit, Sir, Is A Poor Organizing Principle For Medical Care

[DocwillCuNow]

2. You might want to ask yourself,

Where in the hell did this go???? Or would it be too cheap and easy?

Antiviral Res. 2012 Jan;93(1):23-9. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2011.10.011. Epub 2011 Oct 18.
Identification of an antioxidant small-molecule with broad-spectrum antiviral activity.
Panchal RG1, Reid SP, Tran JP, Bergeron AA, Wells J, Kota KP, Aman J, Bavari S.
Author information
Abstract

The highly lethal filoviruses, Ebola and Marburg cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates. To date there are no licensed vaccines or therapeutics to counter these infections. Identifying novel pathways and host targets that play an essential role during infection will provide potential targets to develop therapeutics. Small molecule chemical screening for Ebola virus inhibitors resulted in identification of a compound NSC 62914. The compound was found to exhibit anti-filovirus activity in cell-based assays and in vivo protected mice following challenge with Ebola or Marburg viruses.

Additionally, the compound was found to inhibit Rift Valley fever virus, Lassa virus and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus in cell-based assays. Investigation of the mechanism of action of the compound revealed that it had antioxidant properties. Specifically, compound NSC 62914 was found to act as a scavenger of reactive oxygen species, and to up-regulate oxidative stress-induced genes. However, four known antioxidant compounds failed to inhibit filovirus infection, thus suggesting that the mechanistic basis of the antiviral function of the antioxidant NSC 62914 may involve modulation of multiple signaling pathways/targets.

Published by Elsevier B.V.

[Viva_Daddy]

3. I guess we have to infect more white folks to get Big Pharma to act.

[Fred Sanders]

4. We are working on it.