Online Medicine

BANGALORE: GE Healthcare, the $17-billion healthcare business of General Electric Company, is planning to invest $200 million in India to tap the rural market for diagnostics and disease monitoring equipments such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT scanners), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-rays.

While the company has already signed agreements with Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh government to outsource radiology equipments in government hospitals, it plans to cover over 12 states in three years.

Following a public-private partnership (PPP) model, the medical device maker, with a revenue of $500 million, would facilitate the rural population with technologies and equipments like to diagnose their diseases at an early stage and would also enable them to monitor it.

“As per the agreement we would try and usher in radiological technologies and experts to provide services to patients. The rural market for diagnosis still remains largely untouched. Our idea is to how to reach the masses and make it affordable,” said GE Healthcare South Asia president and chief executive V Raja.

GE Healthcare has earmarked an investment of around $60 million for equipments under this programme. In Gujarat, the company has already installed devices in five medical colleges, said Mr Raja.

LONDON: A Chinese herbal remedy called horny goat weed is a promising alternative to Viagra for impotent men, Italian researchers said on Monday.

The herb has long held a reputation as a natural aphrodisiac. The lab experiments, which did not look at whether the plant actually increases desire, could lead to new drugs to help men get erections, said Mario Dell'Agli, a researcher at the University of Milan, who led the study.

"This could be the natural Viagra," he said in a telephone interview. "The novelty is that we have synthesised a new molecule that one day may be able to replace Viagra."

Erectile dysfunction is a common condition worldwide, and drugs like Pfizer Inc's But the medicines, which inhibit an enzyme called phosphodiesterase type 5 that restricts blood flow around the body, including to the penis, can have side effects ranging from headaches, upset stomach and visual problems including blindness.

The Italian team looked for alternatives by studying a number of plants reputed to boost sexual performance.

After homing in on horny goat weed, the researchers modified a compound in the plant called icariin and found it blocked the erection-inhibiting enzyme as well as Viagra did.

Because the compound targets the enzyme more precisely, it may have fewer side effects than Viagra, known generically as sildenafil, Dell'Agli said.

Further tests in animals and humans are needed but the extract from the herb represents a potential new erectile dysfunction treatment with fewer side effects, Dell'Agli said.

"The compound icariin is present in the horny goat weed in large amounts and its activity against (the enzyme) is lower compared to Viagra," he said. "But the new molecule we synthesized from icariin is as good as Viagra against (the enzyme)."

HOUSTON -- (September 30, 2008) -- Twelve Baylor College of Medicine researchers have been awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services along with researchers from six additional Texas institutions, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) announced.

"This funding will help Texas health institutions expand their knowledge and understanding of science and medicine," said Hutchison.

"The research represented by these grants covers many important fields of study at Baylor College of Medicine," said Dr. Peter G. Traber, president and CEO at BCM. "We appreciate Senator Hutchison's leadership in support of biomedical science."

Researchers at BCM receiving funding include:

• Dr. Jue (Jade) D. Wang, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics, received $2,302,500 for her project, The Molecular Interface of Replication Elongation and the Cellular Environment from the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health. Wang also received the 2008 National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Awards, a program to support young scientists early in their careers, earlier this year.
• Dr. Aleksandar Milosavljevic, associate professor of molecular and human genetics, received $1,364,573 for his project, Epigenomics Data Analysis and Coordination Center at BCM from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
• Dr. Olivier Lichtarge, professor of molecular and human genetics, received $423,459 for his project, Functional Determinants in G Protein-Coupled Receptors from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
• Dr. H. Daniel Lacorazza, assistant professor of pathology and immunology, received $383,750 for his project, Transcriptional Regulation of Development and Maintenance of Memory T Lymphocytes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
• Dr. Jenny Chang, associate professor of medicine and medical director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at BCM, received $475,325 for her project, Targeting Notch, PI3K-AKT and other novel pathways in breast cancer stem cells from the National Cancer Institute.
• Dr. David Corry, associate professor of medicine-immunology, received $697,014 for his project, Molecular Phenotypes for Lung Diseases from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
• Dr. Karen Cullen, associate professor of pediatrics-nutrition, received $360,449 for her project, Family Eats: Cancer Prevention for Families from the National Cancer Institute.
• Dr. Graeme Mardon, professor of pathology, received $274,764 for his project, Molecular Genetics Emphasizing Vision Research from the National Eye Institute.
• Dr. Mary Mariscalco, associate professor of pediatrics-critical care, received $183,632 for her project, Research Training in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
• Dr. Hardeep Singh, assistant professor of medicine-health services research, received $421,506 for his project, Using Electronic Data to Improve Care of Patients with Known or Suspected Cancer from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
• Dr. Susan Marriott, professor of molecular virology and microbiology, received $223,295 for her project, Transforming Potential of Emerging Human Retroviruses from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
• Dr. Virginia Moyer, professor of pediatrics, received $299,764 for her project, Safe Passages: A Toolkit to Ensure Quality Transitions from NICU to Ambulatory Care from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

HOUSTON -- (September 30, 2008) -- Three injections of anthrax vaccine given into the muscle stimulate comparable antibody responses and cause fewer adverse reactions than four doses given under the skin, said a consortium of researchers that included those from Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the current Journal of the American Medical Association.

"We expect that reducing the number of adverse reactions will lead to a higher level of acceptability of the vaccine," said Dr. Wendy Keitel, professor of molecular virology and microbiology at BCM and director of the Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit at BCM. "And reducing the number of times the vaccine is given will reduce the cost and complexity of delivering the entire program."

Eliminating second dose

Anthrax vaccine is primarily given to people who are at risk for repeated exposure to anthrax spores, such as military personnel deployed to areas where they face an increased risk of infection with the bacteria and people who work with the organism in the laboratory. Eliminating the second dose of the currently recommended schedule would make it easier to fully vaccinate someone, said Keitel.

Researchers studied the ability of a reduced dose schedule to stimulate immune responses and reactions at the vaccine injection site in 1,005 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 61 years who had not previously received the anthrax vaccine. Study participants were placed at random into one of six groups. Some groups received four scheduled doses at weeks 0, two and four weeks and six months; some groups received placebo as the second dose at two weeks; and some received only placebo injections.

Muscle vs. under the skin

Researchers evaluated antibody responses to the vaccine in the study participants seven months after they received the first dose and found that giving fewer injections into the muscle was comparable to the usual schedule of four given under the skin. They also noted fewer and milder side effects in those who received injections into the muscle rather than under the skin.

Other BCM researchers contributing to the study are Dr. Hanaa El Sahly, assistant professor of molecular virology and microbiology, Nanette Bond, P.A.C., study coordinator, and staff from the Vaccine Research Center. Contributing institutions include University of Alabama at Birmingham, Walter Reed Army Institute for Research, Mayo Clinic, and Emory University School of Medicine.

The study was funded and sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC was responsible for the development, study protocol and for statistical analyses.

The study can be found at www.jama.ama-assn.org/.

HYDERABAD: Private sector health care major Apollo Hospitals on Saturday announced it will set up 200 clinics across the country to provide a comprehensive diabetes management.

The company launched on pilot basis two diabetes management clinics here, and plans to set up 50 clinics over the next six months and 150 more by December 2009 in various parts of the country.

Named Sugar, these clinics will provide comprehensive diagnosis and evaluation, education, and treatment, including life-style support to the diabetics. "This is a major initiative to combat diabetes which has assumed epidemic proportions in the country," Apollo Hospitals Group chairman Pratap C. Reddy said.

He told reporters that Rs.400 million were earmarked for setting up the 200 clinics.

Apollo signed a memorandum of understanding for the purpose with MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Merck, a research-driven global pharmaceutical company based in the US.

MSD managing director A. Naveen Rao said his company would provide scientific inputs, Merck's software tool specific for the development of the structured care protocol (SCP) to manage the diabetic patients, training to physicians and paramedics and patient education content.

According to Reddy, India is considered the global capital of diabetes and it is projected that every fifth adult in the country would be a diabetic. There are 32 million diabetics in the country and the number is likely to reach 80 million by 2030.

"It is projected that India will need to spend a whopping $30 billion by 2030 to manage the disease burden created by diabetes," he said.

The Sugar clinics will focus on identification and management of pre-diabetics. "A scientific screening programme will identify those who are likely to become diabetics in near future and they will be taken through a life style management programme to prevent or delay onset of diabetes," Apollo chief executive K. Hari Prasad said.

The clinics will also offer year-long disease management programme, including controlling blood sugar level and early intervention for complications of diabetes.