<div dir="ltr">Dear Ingeborg -- Thank you for sending your note and making us aware of this network.This definitely looks like a forum where we would want to see the new drug discussed and critiqued. Perhaps once we sign up, we can send along a few statements that we've produced in the past few days.<div style>
We'll be in touch shortly.</div><div style>Thanks much,</div><div style>Jeff Conant</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 12:59 AM, Ingeborg v Schayk <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ingeborgvschayk@malariastichting.nl" target="_blank">ingeborgvschayk@malariastichting.nl</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">Dear Jeff & Natalie,<div><br></div><div>Your discussion about ACTs just came to my attention.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I believe this would be an interesting topic to further discuss with malaria experts. I would like to invite you to post your ideas and comments on MalariaWorld so we can bring this discussion to the attention of the international professional malaria community. MalariaWorld is the world's scientific and social network for malaria professionals with 7800+ subscribers from 140 countries: <a href="http://www.malariaworld.org" target="_blank">www.malariaworld.org</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>How can you post your blog? Visit <a href="http://www.malariaworld.org/user/register" target="_blank">http://www.malariaworld.org/user/register</a> and register (it's for free and you can unsubscribe any time). </div>
<div><br></div><div>After your account is activated you can start posting your blog. We will bring it to the attention of our subscribers in our weekly e-mail newsletter. </div><div><br></div><div>If you would be interested, kindly let me know when you have submitted your registration. All registrations are verified manually (security check) and at times this takes some time but I can activate your account instantly. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Kind regards,</div><div>Inga</div><div><br></div><div><div><div>
<span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><font face="Verdana">Ingeborg van Schayk<br>Director Dutch Malaria Foundation<br><br>Dutch Malaria Foundation<br>PO Box 18, 6669 ZG Dodewaard, The Netherlands<br>
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</span></div><div><br><div>Begin doorgestuurd bericht:</div><br><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgba(0,0,0,1.0)"><b>Van: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium">"Anke Tijtsma" <<a href="mailto:anke.tijtsma@wemos.nl" target="_blank">anke.tijtsma@wemos.nl</a>><br>
</span></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgba(0,0,0,1.0)"><b>Onderwerp: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium"><b>[Fwd: PHM concern about new snthetic-biology-based anti-malarial?]</b><br>
</span></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgba(0,0,0,1.0)"><b>Datum: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium">14 april 2013 20:43:38 CEST<br>
</span></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgba(0,0,0,1.0)"><b>Aan: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium"><a href="mailto:bart@malariaworld.org" target="_blank">bart@malariaworld.org</a><br>
</span></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgba(0,0,0,1.0)"><b>Kopie: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium"><a href="mailto:ingeborgvschayk@malariastichting.nl" target="_blank">ingeborgvschayk@malariastichting.nl</a><br>
</span></div><br><div>Hoi Bart en Ingeborg,<br>Ik forward je dit mailtje van de listserve van Peoples health Movement.<br>wellicht interessant voor jullie<br>ik ben het eens met de gemaakte punten hieronder.<br><br>Jullie?<br>
<br>mbt het onderwerp counterfeit drugs, zal ik de agenda van de World health<br>Assembly in mei op dit onderdeel volgen. iemand van de NL ambassade in<br>Geneve nam deel aan eerdere workinggroup van lidstaten op dit thema. Ik<br>
zal je op de hoogte houden.<br><br>Anke<br><br><br>------------------------- Oorspronkelijk bericht -------------------------<br>Onderwerp: Re: PHM-Exch> PHM concern about new snthetic-biology-based<br>anti-malarial?<br>
Van: "Natalie Eggermont" <<a href="mailto:natalie.eggermont@gmail.com" target="_blank">natalie.eggermont@gmail.com</a>><br>Datum: Vr, 12 april, 2013 16:29<br>Aan: "Jeff Conant" <<a href="mailto:jefeconant@gmail.com" target="_blank">jefeconant@gmail.com</a>><br>
CC: "Eric Hoffman" <<a href="mailto:EHoffman@foe.org" target="_blank">EHoffman@foe.org</a>><br> "Gopal Dayaneni" <<a href="mailto:gopal@movementgeneration.org" target="_blank">gopal@movementgeneration.org</a>><br>
"jim thomas" <<a href="mailto:jim@etcgroup.org" target="_blank">jim@etcgroup.org</a>><br> "Tina Stevens" <<a href="mailto:Mltstevens70@gmail.com" target="_blank">Mltstevens70@gmail.com</a>><br>
<a href="mailto:phm-exchange@phm.phmovement.org" target="_blank">phm-exchange@phm.phmovement.org</a><br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>Dear all<br><br>I looked into this briefly and agree with the points already raised by<br>
Jeff. I think we would want to add these:<br><br>1. This 'solution' does not address the problem. It is in line with a trend<br>that we have criticized before where medicines and technology are brought<br>forward to the neglect of prevention efforts focusing on the structural<br>
determinants of health. In this press release it seems as if the<br>availability of artimisinin in world markets is the problem; which is not<br>the case. Even if it would be available at low prices, children would still<br>
die from malaria. A recent report from ACTwatch (project by Population<br>Services International with LSHTM, ironically funded by BMGF but they have<br>good data) shows that, although ACT is now the WHO-recommended treatment,<br>
the use of ineffective monotherapies remains widespread, both<br>non-artemisinin therapies as well as oral artemisinin monotherapy. WHO has<br>recommended a ban of this last one due to the potential to cause<br>artemisinin resistance. Their multi-country study showed that anti-malarial<br>
medicines markets were dominated by the private sector (in Nigeria 98%, of<br>which only 2% were quality-assured ACT). "In six African countries,<br>quality-assured ACT accounted for less than 25% of total antimalarial<br>
volumes, and private-sector quality-assured ACT volumes represented less<br>than 6% of the total market share (...) For most countries, non-artemisinin<br>therapies dominate the overall market, followed by ACT and then oral<br>
artemisinin monotherapies. Exceptions to this finding were noted in Nigeria<br>and the DRC where more oral artemisinin monotherapies were sold than ACT in<br>the private sector" (see graph attached). In addition, first-line quality<br>
assured ACT was found to be 5-24 times more expensive than non-artemisinin<br>therapies in each country. While the private sector is distributing most<br>drugs, the knowledge of the first- line treatment was significantly higher<br>
in the public/not-for-profit sector than the private sector across all<br>countries: 44% to 96% of providers in the public/not-for- profit sector<br>could correctly state the first-line treatment, compared with 12% to 67% in<br>
the private sector.<br>The problem is lack of political will, lack of regulation of the private<br>sector and lack of training of health workers; not unavailable ACT.<br><br>2. Who is in there and how they are benefitting. The big funder is the Bill<br>
and Melinda Gates Foundation, that gave money to PATH's drug development<br>program "OneWorld Health". They 'shephered the drug’s development out of<br>Keasling’s UC Berkeley lab to Amyris for scale-up and then to<br>
pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, based in France, for production". It has to be<br>noted that about half of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s stock<br>holdings are invested in Berkshire Hathaway and that Berkshire Hathaway<br>
holds a stake in Sanofi. And Jay Keasling, the principle investigator, has<br>also profited from business deals with Monsanto, the investment favorite of<br>the Gates Foundation. Amyris, besides producing artimisinin also plans to<br>
develop agrofuels, in which Monsanto is a major player. At the heart of the<br>problem, and I think FoE would highlight that anyhow, is that the<br>development of science is not serving the public interest but commercial<br>
one's and that these people are at the highest level setting the research<br>agenda and shaping the public's view of problems and solutions.<br><br>I'm not a malaria expert, nor know much about WHO drug approval processes<br>
so there is probably a lot more to be said. This is just one contribution<br>to a conversation which I agree with Jeff we should have. I don't think our<br>core concerns would differ so much from previous FoE or ETC Group<br>
statements on these processes unrelated to medicines; so I think this could<br>work two ways: 1) us contributing some expertise on malaria, generic drugs<br>etc and 2) using this case to raise the more broad discussion on synthetic<br>
biology in the health field, where it has not been very present to my<br>knowledge?<br><br><br>With love<br><br>Natalie<br><br><br>2013/4/11 Jeff Conant <<a href="mailto:jefeconant@gmail.com" target="_blank">jefeconant@gmail.com</a>><br>
<br><blockquote type="cite">Greetings PHM -- I'm writing to see if I can stimulate some concern or<br>conversation about today's announcement of a new anti-malarial drug that<br>mimics natural artemisinin. The announcement is here:<br>
<br><a href="http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/11/launch-of-antimalarial-drug-a-triumph-for-uc-berkeley-synthetic-biology/" target="_blank">http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/11/launch-of-antimalarial-drug-a-triumph-for-uc-berkeley-synthetic-biology/</a><br>
<br>The concern that I think PHM would want to weigh in on, is threefold: 1)<br>that this new drug, being marketed by Sanofi, is produced using a new<br>biotech process based in the genetic modification of microbes that are<br>
designed to 'excrete' substances such as the active ingredient in<br>artemisia, 2) that the currently decentralized production of artemsisin<br>will be captured entirely by a single company that owns the means of<br>
production, and 3) that this new production will replace the entire<br>global production, which will put some 5500 farmers in East Africa out of<br>work.<br>The media is already announcing this as a great humanitarian advance, but<br>
it has real social justice implications.<br>I am at Friends of the Earth and am working on a press statement about<br>this with a number of groups critical of synthetic biology. I wonder if PHM<br>has looked at this, if any PHM'ers would want to weigh in, and if there are<br>
any experts on generic drugs, WHO drug approval, malaria, ectetera, who<br>would be able to provide some expertise and make some public statements on<br>this?<br>Thanks much!<br>- Jeff Conant<br><br>--<br>Jeff Conant<br>Skype: jeffconant<br>
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<div><div><div><div></div></div><br></div></div></div><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Jeff Conant<font></font><font></font><br></font><div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Skype: jeffconant</font></div>
<div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Web/Blog: <a href="http://climate-connections.org/" target="_blank">http://climate-connections.org/</a></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div>
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