WIRED News: A Drug to Eradicate Diarrhea

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

A Drug to Eradicate Diarrhea

By Kristen Philipkoski

02:00 AM Jul. 11, 2005 PT

Napo Pharmaceuticals is poised to launch the first Third World blockbuster drug.

It sounds counterintuitive -- drugs marketed to poor people don't typically lead to big profits. But Lisa Conte, Napo's founder and CEO, hopes not only to bring an affordable diarrhea medication to millions of people in developing nations, but also to reshape the pharmaceutical industry.

The current development model for drug companies is fizzling, she said. More and more prospective blockbuster medications are failing in the final stages of development, and companies will have to consider selling at a lower price to larger numbers of less affluent customers.

"The pharmaceutical industry of the future needs to include emerging and developing economies," Conte said at the Biotechnology Industry Organization annual meeting last month in Philadelphia. "We're not going to be able to enjoy the pricing we have in the past."

Conte founded Shaman Pharmaceuticals in 1989. It was a hot "bioprospecting" company throughout the '90s, scouring the rainforest and other natural settings for medicinal plants and turning them into FDA-approved drugs. But the company came to a heartbreaking end in 2001 when it was about a year away from launching its first drug. The FDA wanted one more round of clinical trials, but Shaman couldn't afford them and went bankrupt.

More at: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68145,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

[GiovanniC]

1. Does This Mean an End to Those Dreadful Congo-Line Pepto-Bismal

Commercials?

[GeekMonkey]

2. If we give it to the president, will he shit himself out of office?

[zalinda]

3. Except that, isn't diarrhea a by-product

of the body trying to get rid of something that doesn't agree with it? You drink bad water and you get diarrhea, what happens when that toxic stuff stays in your body?

zalinda

[dogonarug]

4. Rush Limbaugh...n/t

[Melynn]

5. That's what I was thinking

Of course toxics building up in the body will another attacked with another drug by the big pharmaceutical companies.

[cry baby]

6. Admittedly, I haven't done any research into this, but

I believe that I have heard that hundreds of thousands of people, mostly children, die each year of diarrhea. I admire the attitude taken by this company to try to help mankind instead of just making profits.

[TahitiNut]

7. I think, technically, they die of dehydration.

:shrug: So, maybe the drug causes fluid retention. Reverse Midol?

[cry baby]

8. yes, you're right

edit to say that if I had read the article...it says that over 1 million die each year of dehydration due to diarrhea.

[applegrove]

9. Very good news. I hope this is the start of something where the

drug companies have to price all their life saving drugs according to local markets.