Patent Problem for Australian Professor Ian Frazer • Prana Co
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Bi Board Look out for these Upcoming Issues Australia Patent Problem for Australian Professor Ian Frazer Australian scientist Professor Ian Frazer is most well 2006 known as the inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine, which received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration recently and is set to become commercially available in Australia later this year. Drug giant Merck is 30 Aug Drug Discovery already marketing Gardasil to American women on its website. However, there appears to be a patent problem for 15 Sep Special Issue on the cervical cancer vaccine. Biotechnology in Korea The University of Rochester is one of four research institutions claiming to be responsible for original work 30 Sep Pharmacogenomics leading to a cervical cancer vaccine. The other three are the US' National Cancer Institute (NCI), Georgetown 15 Oct Telemedicine University in Washington DC and the University of Queensland. A Georgetown University Medical Center 30 Oct Bioethics (GUMC) press release issued the day the FDA approved Gardasil explained researcher Richard Schlegel's role in the vaccine's development but says nothing about the other 15 Nov Special Issue on Clinical Trials in Asia Pacifi c efforts involved. On the other hand, Ian insists he co-invented the vaccine 30 Nov Lipodomics with University of Queensland colleague Dr Jian Zhou in 1991. Frazer and Zhou fi led a provisional patent covering their human papillomavirus (HPV) research in June 1991 15 Dec Biostatistics and presented their fi ndings at a scientifi c meeting in the US in September that year. 30 Dec Special Issue Bioinformatics in Asia Pacifi c According to Matthew Rimmer, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University who specializes in intellectual property, what resulted was a "three-way battle between the University of Queensland and CSL Ltd, the University of Rochester, and the National Institutes of Health." Bi Board Prana co-Founding Scientist, approach is now directed at identifying lead Professor Colin Masters, Receives compounds, such as PBT2 (Prana’s lead compound), Lifetime Achievement Award in that can inhibit the production or aggregation of amyloid in the Alzheimer’s disease brain. Alzheimer's Disease Research Professor Colin Masters, MD, PhD, of the Australia's Topical Pain Relief Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne Lotion to be Exported to Asia and co-founding scientist of Prana Biotechnology and Europe Limited received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Elmore Oil, the pain relief lotion produced in Alzheimer’s Disease Research at the 10th International Australia using four natural ingredients has proven to Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD) in Madrid be an effective pain reliever for all forms of arthritis, recently. The award is presented to outstanding including osteo-arthritis. Manufactured using a world scientists who have dedicated themselves to helping first process, known as Triple Maturation, the products millions around the world through their research. creator was able to harness the pain relieving and Professor Masters also currently serves as the Head anti-inflammatory properties of natural tea tree oil of the Alzheimer’s Project at the Mental Health and eucalyptus oil, yet produce a potent synergystic Research Institute of Victoria (Australia). effect by the unique maturing process he developed. Colin Masters began his research career in 1966, In Australia, the product has proven effective in as a summer vacation student working with Evan the relief of all forms of joint and muscular pain, Morgan (Department of Physiology, University of even the more difficult osteo-arthritis. Now with Western Australia) on the placental transfer of plasma distributors located in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the proteins. His interests in neuroscience research stem Czech Republic, Elmore Oil will soon be available from this time, when during pursuit of a Bachelor of throughout Asia and Europe. Australian based Latrobe Medical Science degree he participated in the first University will conduct clinical trials to validate the demonstration of brain-stem evoked responses to pain relieving and rapid recovery properties of Elmore aditory stimuli in humans. Oil. In soft tissue injuries, Elmore Oil is believed to speed up the recovery time by more than 35%. The evaluation of amyloid deposition in other transmissible diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, led Professor Masters in 1978 to commence China his study of the nature of the amyloid deposits in Alzheimer’s disease. In collaboration with Konrad China Media Networks Beyreuther (then at the Institute of Genetics, Cologne, International Inc Changes and now the University of Heidelberg) in 1984, the Name to Medical Solutions N-terminal sequence of Alzheimer plaque amyloid Management Inc was obtained. The collaboration has continued to the China Media Networks International announced present and resulted in numerous achievements. that its corporate name is Medical Solutions Professor Masters’ current studies on Alzheimer’s Management Inc. (MSMI). MSMI changed its name disease are now focused on identifying the pathways to better align and reflect the identity of its through which environmental and genetic factors increasingly diversified medical solutions business can operate to cause the disease. In collaboration activities. The new ticker symbol is "MSMT." The with the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology company will continue to trade on the Over the enterprises, Professor Masters’ multidisciplinary Counter Bulletin Board. Bi Board Joint Study Shows Genetically He indicated that the researchers, farmers and Modified Cotton Less Profitable policy-makers now needed to find ways to control the secondary pests by, for example, introducing natural in China predators of the mirids, or engineering a second A genetically modified (GM) cotton capable of generation of Bt cotton that kills the other pests. resisting bollworms has caused Chinese farmers to lose money after a seven-year trial because other pests Another idea is to use refuges, which are small have thrived, according to a joint study by Chinese pockets of land used to grow conventional cotton and U S researchers. alongside Bt cotton. The land can maintain a population of insects not exposed to the Bt toxin The study, the first to look at the longer-term and help prevent the development of toxin-resistant economic impact of GM cotton, was conducted by insects, according to the researchers. the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Cornell University in the Important Progress in Functional United States. Genomics Research Scientists reported their findings recently. The With support from the 863 Program in China, findings were likely to be controversial, said the important progress has been achieved in research on researchers, because it suggested that the Bt cotton, functional genomics such as microbe genomics, T. named for the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterial gene rubrum, and rice blast fungus. The cDNA library of it contains, did not live up to the agricultural success Six T. rubrum fungi in different growing phases has story predicted by some earlier studies. been established. 8,000 unique expressed sequence tags have been obtained. Three proteins which may “These results should send a very strong signal to be related to pathogenic gene have been identified. researchers and governments that they need to come Some genes common to T. rubrum fungi and shared up with remedial actions for the Bt-cotton farmers. by superficial fungi have been initially determined by Otherwise, these farmers will stop using Bt cotton, and means of gene chips. The cDNA library of rice blast at that would be very unfortunate,” said Per Pinstrup- various stages development and infection has been set Andersen, a Cornell professor who led the study. up. 100 brand new pieces of EST have been obtained. A mutant bank has been established that contains over The Bt gene inserted into the cotton seeds can 56,000 independent transformants. Two new rice blast produce toxins that are lethal to the leaf-eating pathogenic genes have also been cloned. bollworm, a major pest in cotton fields. In the seven- year survey, the researchers found that by year Promotion of China International three cotton farmers who had planted Bt cotton had Innovation Park of Biotechnology cut pesticide use by more than 70 percent and had earnings 36 percent higher than farmers planting and Medicine conventional cotton. A promotion was staged in Beijing recently, for the International Innovation Park of Bio-medicine But by 2004, they had to spray just as much Innovation in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area. At the as conventional farmers, which resulted in a net promotion, the Ministry of Science and Technology average income of 8 percent less than conventional (MOST) gave a briefing on the status quo of China’s cotton farmers, because Bt seed is triple the cost of bio-medical industry, the direction research and conventional seed. international cooperation in this field. The science After seven years, populations of other insects and technology committee of Tianjin city released such as mirids have increased so much that farmers background information, size, objectives of the are now having to spray their crops up to 20 times park as well as the policy measures to attract both a growing season to control them, according to the domestic and foreign bio-medical enterprises and R&D study of 481 Chinese cotton farmers. institutions, bio-medical HR, bio-medical technology,