Immunocompetent

Here we continue notes from the World Health Organization Pandemic Inflluenza Preparedness Intergovernmental Meeting. Refer to the previous post to read: Pretending You are In Charge (WHO), America Insults the Scientists of the Developing World - Or Is It About Patents?, and Japan's Big Bluffer.

US Shenanigans on Distributing Vaccine Seed Strain

Uncle Sam is up to something untoward when it comes to WHO's (pre)pandemic influenza vaccine seed strains.  Immuncompetent doesn't know for sure what it is; but he's got a hunch.  The issue is the language under discussion that would direct WHO Collaborating Centres to distribute influenza vaccine seed strain.

In addition to providing H5N1 vaccine seed strain to industry (which WHO CC's presently do), most countries want to make sure that the vaccine seed strain is also provided to national influenza centers around the globe or, at least, in the country of origin of the HA gene used in the seed strain.

Although the US professes to be in favor of this, it actually seems to have problems with sharing vaccine seed strains.  To wit, it insists on inserting qualifying language into the paragraph (More)

Think antibodies might be useful to prevent or treat bird flu?  Better get out your checkbook, because a company based in San Francisco says it owns all H5N1 antibodies, including all human (and some animal) antibodies against the critical HA gene of the H5N1 "bird flu" virus. The claims are made in an international patent application published on September 18th.

But wait, it gets even more disgusting: The company also specifically claims DNA (and amino acids) taken from at least 3 Vietnamese survivors of H5N1. The DNA, which encodes antibodies, is contained in human cell lines established from the victims' blood.

If granted, the patent application could have profound effects in limiting research on antibody treatments against the potentially pandemic H5N1 type of influenza. It could also earn its owners huge profits from the blood of 3 (or 4) Vietnamese persons who were nearly killed by the virus. Who exactly wants to profit?  Well, one of the would-be owners of H5N1 antibodies and pieces of Vietnamese people is none other than a co-founder of Chiron and former Director of Novartis. Sadly, there is no remedial ethics class to which to send these perverted patent applicants. (More)

This isn't the really interesting news I promised the other day (that's still being vetted elsewhere); but it's pretty darn telling.

(Above: What it would cost different regions to stockpile Tamiflu under Roche's plan.)

Roche and Glaxo, with their flu antivirals Tamiflu and Relenza (respectively), are offering us a little preview of what's going to happen with pandemic vaccines (and other biologicals) if the patent trend continues unabated.  What happens, in a phrase, is that the rich get treated and the poor get dead.

Today's news brings an item about Roche and Glaxo's hawking of their drugs to corporations for private stockpiles.  Think of it as a sort of pandemic "health insurance", mega-corporation style.  (More)

As others in flubloggia have noted, I am not the most frequent blogger.  But when I do write, I aim for quality.

At the moment, there are two very interesting developments in the world of H5N1 patents that I'm slaving away at analyzing and writing up for your perusal.

Check back soon for a full writeup.

And by the way, this blog has a listserv.  If you'd like to join the flu listserver, please visit: 

 http://lists.sunshine-project.org/lists/info/flu

Thanks and see you soon.

Although some, like US and European governments, would like to pretend it isn't happening, it's no secret that there has been a huge increase in international patent applications claiming bits and pieces of H5N1 viruses and related vaccines and other treatments.

The overall trends can be monitored by searching on PatentScope, a free international patent application database published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). If you are new to patents, it might be intimidating at first - patent talk is not plain English - but with a bit of experimentation, searching PatentScope is something anyone can learn to do.

There are three such searches that I have been monitoring for nearly two years now. The results aren't pretty, and they are getting worse.  The tidal wave of H5N1 patent claims shows no signs of abating, and is on track in 2008 to meet or exceed 2007, which was already the biggest year of such patent claims on record. 

The trend is clear: An emerging "patent thicket" threatens to impair H5N1 research and make vaccines and other treatments unaffordable. But don't count on the US or European governments doing anything about this - they're still in denial mode.

 (More)