Just a quick bit of good news: four patents of the key AIDS/HIV drug tenofovir disoproxil fumarate have been revoked on grounds of prior art. This is great news for developing nations where lower prices on these drugs could save thousands of lives. [Via Slashdot]
Of course, Gilead (the company whose patents have been revoked) are vowing to fight their corner; after all, life is a wonderful thing, but it must always come second to profit.
Everything comes with a price. Research in lab animals suggests that drugs designed to rejuvenate mitochondria (the “power generator” component of living cells) could fend off many of the diseases we associate with ageing and senescence, like Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and so forth. The pay-off? It appears that when death finally does arrive, it does so with little or no warning, and seemingly no reason. [Image by Rodrigo Senna]
Personally, I’d consider that a fair trade – I’m less scared of death itself than I am of dying, if you see what I mean. But is death itself unconquerable, or is it just the next hurdle in line?
Wired has a report on the growing field of microfluidics – tiny devices that can sort and manipulate tiny droplets of liquid in ways analogous to electronic logic circuits, which have the potential to accelerate pharmacological research and the development of new medical treatments. [Image ganked from website of RainDance Technologies – please contact for take-down if required.]
Drugs aren’t just used for curing disease, though – one can only imagine the sort of illicit recreational substances that this technology will create once it becomes more common, and it will surely speed us toward the time when sports prowess is as much to do with the chemical augmentation of the participants as any inborn skill.
We humans use some pretty odd things as medicines – penicillin is a form of fruit mold, after all. But sometimes the origins and other uses of a substance get in the way of objective scientific study of its effects – the marijuana debate being a prime example. That said, mold and resinous plants are fairly innocuous when compared to the
original source of a new weight-loss drug for diabetics – gila monster saliva.