Here are few brief news related to healthcare & pharmaceutical scenes for your update.

• Novartis Set to Take Up Majority Stake in Alcon

Novartis would be investing some $39 billion to become a majority shareholder of Alcon – a major ophthalmological specialty company.

Alcon is the world’s biggest ophthalmological specialty company with a very strong pipeline in its portfolio. It has been controlled by Nestlé's and the sales represent a portfolio strengthening move by Novartis. The specialties of Alcon has been its focus on ophthamological products from pharmaceutical, surgical and OTC eyecare products.

In a separate statement, Alcon has issued an announcement that it planned to build a plant in Singapore to service its growing Asia Pacific markets. The facilities is expected to be ready by 2012 and will create some 150 jobs.

• Initiative to Create Another Patent-Free Anti-malarial Drug

Million of people, especially in the African continent and other developing economies, die of malaria every year. But paradoxically, the economic impetus to invest in malaria fighting drugs often takes lower priority due to commercial viability. Most of the target countries where such disease is rampant are facing problem feeding themselves; let alone buying drugs.

However, an innovative partnership between an NGO group and a pharmaceutical company led to a new cheap non-patented drug against malaria being available in Africa in 2007. This model of success is now being experimented in the Latin American countries. Called Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), this has been a joint effort between Sanofi-Aventis and a Brazilian public pharmaceutical company striking it out to bring Fixed-Dose Artesunate-based Combination Therapies (FACT) with supports from Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) with financial support from the European Union, the Agence Française de Développement, the Dutch, Spanish and United Kingdom governments. Other partners are universities, WHO etc.

The new drug, launched on 17 April in Rio de Janeiro, is named ASMQ after its two components: artesunate (AS) and mefloquine (MQ). It is a new unpatented combination drug targeted toward patients suffering from uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Latin America and Asia. The combination is one of the four recommended by the WHO. Indian generic maker, Cipla,  will produce the patent-free drug for  the Asian market and will provide the product at the at-cost price to the public sector in Asia.

• What is the Pipeline for Gram-negative Pathogens?

The emergence of new human pathogens and increasing antimicrobial resistance in well-established pathogens are critical public health concerns. Unfortunately, the pipeline of new antimicrobial candidates remains remarkably lean for molecules active against increasingly problematic Gram-negative bacterial pathogens, such as Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Although a number of new anti-Gram-negative antibacterial agents are likely to be introduced soon for clinical use, they will not represent a quantum leap in our ability to effectively treat these human pathogens of great concern. New classes of antimicrobials with novel mechanisms of action and new approaches to increasing the effectiveness of traditional antimicrobials are urgently needed. Renewed research and development efforts must become a priority, lest we fall further behind in our therapeutic initiatives.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/571248?print

? Third-Generation Oral Contraceptives: Future Implications of Current Use

Third-generation oral contraceptives are an association of low-dose ethinyl estradiol and potent testosterone-derived progestins, developed in order to improve general and vascular tolerance. They are highly efficient and well tolerated by most users. Their extensive use has provided different key information: oral contraceptives (as well as non-oral ethinyl estradiol-containing contraceptives) can be used in women under the age of 35 years with well-controlled metabolic risk factors and high familial risk of breast cancer. On the other hand, ethinyl-estradiol containing contraceptives are not indicated in women with a high risk of deep venous thrombosis, or noncontrolled metabolic and vascular risk factors (including being over the age of 35 years or cigarette smoking), or with a history of breast cancer. Progestin-only contraception is not well tolerated owing to bleeding. Future hormonal contraception for women with a high vascular risk may contain nontestosterone-derived progestins and 17? estradiol, or antiprogestins.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/571231?print

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