The Andhra Journal of Industrial News, August 2005, Issue 17, Vepachedu Educational Foundation

Contents
New Medicines for Malaria
Nanotechnology
New Indian Patent Regime
US Patent System in Crisis
Ranbaxy Launches Attack on Pfizer
Atkins Bankrupt
Drugs To Watch
Dr. Reddy's drug famotidine

New Medicines for Malaria
A study reported in The Lancet medical journal shows for the first time that artesunate is better at saving lives than the standard medication, quinine, reducing the chance of death from malaria by 35 percent in the Indian Continent. Quinine is more effective against the malaria parasite in Africa than in the Indian Continent. The study was conducted in hospitals in Bangladesh, Indonesia, India and Myanmar. However, most of the world's malaria deaths occur in Africa, where it is mostly children who are affected. The disease progresses differently in children and the drug may work differently in them. Whether artesunate would be better than quinine in that situation remains unclear. Quinine is cheaper and more easily available. It is likely that quinine will remain the drug of choice for treating severe malaria in Africa.

Nanotechnology
Nanosphere, Inc., a nanotechnology-based molecular diagnostics company, announced that a study of micro- and nanotechnology patent portfolios has ranked the company second overall in terms of pipeline power. The report, prepared by
intellectual property consulting firm 1790 Analytics LLC and published in the July/August 2005 issue of Small Times, evaluates companies' portfolio strength based not only on number of patents issued, but also such factors as pipeline growth and originality. Only Hewlett-Packard was ranked higher than Nanosphere.

Materials scientists working with biologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have developed "smart" bio-nanotubes — with open or closed ends — that could be developed for drug or gene delivery applications. The nanotubes are "smart" because in the future they could be designed to encapsulate and then open up to deliver a drug or gene in a particular location in the body. The scientists found that by manipulating the electrical charges of lipid bilayer membranes and microtubules from cells, they could create open or closed bio-nanotubes, or nanoscale capsules. The news is reported in an article to be published in the August 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New Indian Patent Regime
Innovation drives new technologies and the economy. Patents are fundamental to innovation. With the new patent regime in place from the beginning of this year, India moved into the hi-tech area of intellectual property rights with the first modern patent office becoming operational in Delhi on 29th August 2005. Three more such offices will come up in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Inaugurating the new office building, the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath, said Indian patent offices would be comparable to the best in the world. Stating that the offices of all related services such as patents, trademarks, copyright and geographical indications would be located in the same complex, the Minister said now it would be the responsibility of the intellectual property officials to ensure delivery of services in an equally efficient and transparent manner. Terming intellectual property as the foundation of a knowledge-based economy, Nath said intellectual property, be it in the form of patents, design, trademarks or geographical indications, were becoming increasingly important not only for wealth creation, but for providing employment and improved living standards for the masses. "Patent application filings in India have gone up almost four-fold in the last five years (from 5,000 in 1999-2000 to 17,000 last year). In the last two years alone, we have issued about two lakh trademark certificates, and another one lakh certificates are going to be issued in the current year," he said.

US Patent System in Crisis
Patents are a fundamental thread of our America's fabric, enshrined in the Constitution. But more than $500 million in fees collected by the Patent Office in the last several years has been siphoned off by Congress to pay for unrelated federal programs, leaving the Patent Office under-funded and impairing patent quality. Patent litigation has become an industry in and of itself. More than 2, 500 patent lawsuits are filed each year. The average cost of patent litigation is upward of $4 million. This and the threat of being forced to pull products and features from the market based on patents of questionable validity create fertile ground for abuse. The time for change has come. The Patent Act of 2005, introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Intellectual Property Subcommittee, includes a drastic reform no one is talking about that promises to create far more problems than it solves. Read more here.

Ranbaxy Launches Attack on Pfizer
Ranbaxy Ltd has launched court battles in Britain and US against the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for the rights to produce the cholesterol drug atorvastatin at a cheaper price and save the National Health Service billions of pounds a year. Ranbaxy, is trying to invalidate Pfizer’s patent, taking away its exclusive right to sell the drug, and market it itself in Britain and America, a media report said.

Atkins Bankrupt
Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company that promoted meat eating into an American national diet craze, filed for bankruptcy court protection on August 1st. The firm was founded in 1989 by Dr Robert Atkins and promoted a diet that replaced carbohydrates such as bread and pasta with meat. Medical experts said that following the diet plan for an extended period could have long-term negative effects on health pointing to lack of vegetables and fruit in the diet. The founder Robert Atkins died in April 2003.

Drugs To Watch
Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are literally developing hundreds of medicines. Click on a disease category for a list of experimental medicines being developed to treat related illnesses at Forbes.com.

Dr. Reddy's drug famotidine
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (REDY.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) (RDY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its gastrointestinal drug famotidine, the FDA said on August 19.

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