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Cutting
Emissions in Illinois
Dr. Reddy's v Teva Ranbaxy in Canada Patent Reform in USA New Bill for Drug Safety Paradise Lost! Diabetes Treatment New Citizenship Test is Unveiled How a Patent Lawyer Keeps Scales in Balance as a Mom? Nuclear Power The United States produces the most nuclear energy, with nuclear power providing 20% of the electricity it consumes, while France produces the highest percentage of its electrical energy from nuclear reactors - 80% as of 2006. In the European Union as a whole, nuclear energy provides 30% of the electricity. Nuclear energy policy differs between European Union countries, and some, such as Austria and Ireland, have no active nuclear power stations. In comparison France has a large number of these plants, with 16 currently in use. As of October 31, 2005, there are 104 commercial nuclear generating units that are fully licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to operate in the United States. Of these 104 reactors, 69 are categorized a pressurized water reactors (PWRs) totaling 65,100 net megawatts (electric) and 35 units are boiling water reactors (BWR) totaling 32,300 net megawatts (electric). Although the United States has the most nuclear capacity of any nation, no new commercial reactor has come on line since May 1996. The current Administration has been supportive of nuclear expansion, emphasizing its importance in maintaining a diverse energy supply. The last reactor to come on line in the United States was the Watt’s Bar reactor in Tennessee, owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It began commercial service in May 1996. Nevertheless, US commercial nuclear capacity has increased in recent years through a combination of license extensions and uprating (upgrading) of existing reactors. Buoyed by billions of dollars in subsidies pushed through Congress by the Bush Administration, the U.S. nuclear power industry says 2007 is the year its plans for a “renaissance” will reach critical mass. The mere discussion of building dozens of new reactors is a remarkable turnaround for an industry that less than 10 years ago was widely viewed as the energy sector’s unsafe and expensive also-ran. And it’s a textbook case of how the wheels of government can change direction quickly when enough money, influence and political will are applied. This year, two license applications to build nuclear power units have been filed in the United States for the first time in almost three decades. If approved, the units will be built in Texas. The 2,700 megawatt project will add two units to the existing two units at the South Texas Project nuclear power plant at Bay City, 90 miles southwest of Houston. The new units should come online in 2014 and 2015. The units will contribute to NRG's goal of 10,000 MW of efficient, clean power, the same amount the Electric Reliability Council of Texas projects that Texas' energy needs will grow by 2014. The U.S. Department of Energy says domestic energy needs will increase 40 percent by 2030, and the Nuclear Energy Institute says 35 new nuclear power plants will be needed in the next 40 years. Based in Princeton, N.J., with operations throughout the U.S., Australia, Germany and Brazil, NRG says the plants will bring $9 billion to the area and create up to 6,000 construction jobs and 800 new permanent positions at the plant. Expected New Nuclear Power Plants in USA: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/new-licensing-files/expected-new-rx-applications.pdf As of January 1, 2005, Illinois ranked 1st among the 31 States with nuclear capacity. The origin of all of the commercial and military nuclear industries in the world can be traced back to December 2, 1942 at the University of Chicago. On that day, a team of scientists under Dr. Enrico Fermi initiated the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. The experiment began Illinois' involvement in nuclear development, but did not end it. Sixty-four years later, Illinois remains the national leader in nuclear capacity. Illinois has almost as much nuclear capacity by itself as the United Kingdom. Twenty-one other countries with at least one nuclear plant have less capacity. (Illinois Nuclear Industry; Population -12.7 million; Report Updated: August 18, 2006 http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/states/statesil.html) Compare this situation with that in India, which proved its ability in 1974. India lags behind in nuclear energy, despite its need for electricity to provide better life for the poor. India: Population -1.2 billion Location Unit Namea Capacity (net MWe) b Utilityc Typed Reactor Suppliere Percent Completef Expected / Actual Date of Operation Kaiga, Karnataka Kaiga 1 202 NP PHWR NPCIL 75 11/1998 1999 Kaiga 2 202 NP PHWR NPCIL 75 11/1998 2000 Kakrapar, Gujarat Kakrapar 1 202 NP PHWR DAE/NPCIL 100 11/1992 Kakrapar 2 202 NP PHWR DAEC/NPCIL 100 03/1995 Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu Kalpakkam 1 155 NP PHWR DAE 100 07/1983 Kalpakkam 2 155 NP PHWR DAE 100 09/1985 Kota, Rajasthan Rajasthan 1 90 NP PHWR AECL 100 11/1972 Rajasthan 2 187 NP PHWR AECL/DAE 100 11/1980 Rajasthan 3 202 NP PHWR NPCIL 70 11/1998 2000 Rajasthan 4 202 NP PHWR NPCIL 70 05/1999 2000 Rajasthan 5 450 NP PWHR -- 0 2007 2008 Rajasthan 6 450 NP PWHR -- 0 2008 2009 Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu Kudankulam 1 1,000 NP PWR -- 0 2006 2008 Kadunkulam 2 1,000 NP PWR -- 0 2008 2010 Narora, Uttar Pradesh Narora 1 202 NP PHWR DAE/NPCIL 100 07/1989 Narora 2 202 NP PHWR DAE/NPCIL 100 01/1992 Tarapur, Maharashtra Tarapur 1 150 NP BWR GE 100 04/1969 Tarapur 2 150 NP BWR GE 100 05/1969 Tarapur 3 450 NP PHWR NPCIL 10 08/2003 2004 Tarapur 4 450 NP PHWR NPCIL 2 05/2004 2006 aThe Energy Information Administration's review of the latest data sources may have resulted in revisions of names, capacities, and operation dates. For the Error! Hyperlink reference not valid., revisions are based on the Form-860 "Annual Electric Generator Report." bMWe = Megawatts-electric. cNuclear Power Corporation of India, LTD dReactor Types: APWR, advanced pressurized light-water-moderated and cooled reactor; BWR, boiling light-water-cooled and moderated reactor; LGR, light-water-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor; PHWR, pressurized heavy-water-moderated and cooled reactor; PWR, pressurized light-water-moderated and cooled reactor. e GE - General Electric Company [ United States ] DAE Department of Atomic Energy, India NPCI - Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Ltd. fPercent complete is an estimate of how close the nuclear unit was to completion as of December 31, 1996. gPublished date is the estimated date of commercial operation. hEIA projection refers to when a nuclear unit is estimated to become operable. A dash (--) indicates that the estimated year of operability is beyond the year 2015. Sources: International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Power Reactors in the World (Vienna, Austria, April 1997); Nuclear News, "World List of Nuclear Power Plants" (March 1997), pp. 37-52. NAC International, "Nuclear Generation," (February 1997), Section F, pp. 1-43; Form EIA-860 "Annual Electric Generator Report." http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/india/reactor.htm India has now an opportunity to change the situation by joining forces with US by ratifying the Nuclear Deal. The US-India civil nuclear deal emerged as the centerpiece of the historic US-India Summit on July 18, 2005 between President Bush and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition faces an informal end-October deadline to start working on the next steps needed to clinch the deal, and if the row with left parties opposed to it is not resolved by then early polls may be called. The civilian nuclear cooperation pact, first agreed in principle in 2005, aims to end India's nuclear isolation and give it access to U.S. fuel and reactors. While it has been hailed as historic by the two governments and seen as a symbol of their growing strategic ties, communist parties (Maoists-followers of Chinese Communism) who shore up the Indian coalition have rejected it and threatened to end support if New Delhi pursues the deal, while China has planned additional reactors, including some of the world's most advanced, to give a fivefold increase in nuclear capacity to 40 GWe by 2020 and then a further three to fourfold increase to 120-160 GWe by 2030. Cutting Emissions in Illinois Curbing global-warming pollution in Illinois might start with a ban on Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is mulling plans to rid the state of traditional, energy-wasting lights as part of a sweeping package of policy changes intended to cut greenhouse gases by 25 percent by 2020, the same target set by California and bipartisan measures pending in Congress. Despite being number 1 in nuclear energy production, Illinois is a top polluter in terms of greenhouse emissions using coal and oil based technologies. http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/chi-greenhousesep30,0,993850.story Dr. Reddy's v Teva Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Inc. has fought back against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. in the battle over GlaxoSmithKline Inc.'s drug Coreg, saying a lawsuit that seeks to bar Dr. Reddy's from marketing a generic version of the congestive heart failure treatment should be scrapped because all claims of the asserted patents are invalid. In another case, the Israeli drug company has reached an agreement to drop a patent infringement suit filed against the Indian drug maker over its generic version of the antidepressant Zoloft. Ranbaxy in Canada A federal court in Canada has ruled that Pfizer Inc.’s patent covering the key ingredient in Lipitor would be infringed by Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.’s method for developing a generic copy of the cholesterol-lowering drug. Patent Reform in USA The passage of H.1908 by the House of Representatives represents a major leap forward along the path. The following are some highlights of the statute as passed: http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2007/09/patent-reform-2.html Listing of commonly owned applications and patents under 37 CFR 1.78(f): http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2007/09/listing-of-comm.html New Bill for Drug Safety A bill, heralded as the most significant drug safety legislation in more than 40 years, passed on a 405-7 vote. Broadly, the bill renews for five years two programs to collect fees from drug and medical device manufacturers to defray the FDA's expense in reviewing products seeking agency approval. In the wake of the Vioxx withdrawal and subsequent problems with other drugs, lawmakers seized on the legislation to overhaul how the FDA handles the safety of the drugs it regulates. The bill also seeks to increase the agency's scrutiny of drugs after they are on the market. As was the case with Vioxx, serious safety concerns took years to emerge. The bill would require companies to publicly release results of all clinical trials that show how well their drugs performed, although the level of disclosure remains to be determined. It also would give the FDA the power both to require drug companies to further study the safety of medicines if needed and to mandate new label warnings. Republican fears that language contained in that latter provision would expose drug companies to liability if sued in state court had helped hold up negotiations. The FDA also would gain the ability to fine drug companies for not completing follow-up studies on their drugs after they've won government approval. While companies today often agree to do such studies, they are slow to get under way and slower to be completed, if ever. The bill calls for drug companies to pay $393 million, and medical device makers $48 million, in fees next year. Paradise Lost! The invention all admired, and each how he To be the inventor missed; so easy it seemed, Once found, which yet unfounded most would have thought, Impossible! Milton, John, "Paradise Lost", Part VI, ll. 478-501 (1667) Diabetes Treatment Diabetes treatment Galvus has been approved for use in the European Union, the Swiss drugmaker said. The approval by the European Commission had been expected after a July recommendation by a committee of experts at the European Medicines Agency. It will boost prospects for a drug that faces a lengthy delay in getting to market in the United States. Novartis has said it would not be ready to resubmit Galvus to U.S. regulators until mid-2009, following a request for more safety data. The once-daily oral treatment was approved for use in combination with other common oral anti-diabetes medicines, metformin, sulfonylureas or thiazolidinediones, Novartis said in a statement. The approval applies to all 27 EU countries as well as Norway and Iceland. Galvus works in a similar way to Merck & Co. Inc.'s recently launched Januvia but its path to market has been delayed by worries over skin toxicity. Both Galvus and Januvia are so-called DPP-4 inhibitors, which are designed to enhance the body's own ability to lower elevated blood sugar and could become an important new way to control type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The manufacturers and many analysts believe DPP-4 drugs could become blockbusters because they are not associated with weight gain, a major side effect of some established diabetes drugs. New Citizenship Test is Unveiled The Bush administration unveiled a revamped citizenship test Thursday intended to promote assimilation and patriotism -- a redesign some critics contend erects a higher hurdle for immigrants who want to become citizens. The 100 new civics questions -- which test knowledge of American government, history and civics and take effect Oct. 1, 2008 -- will require less rote memorization and are meant to focus more on fostering identification with American values. For example, applicants may currently be asked, "What country did we fight during the Revolutionary War?" But starting next year, applicants could be asked to explain why the colonists fought the British. They may also have to describe what the "rule of law" is and outline one constitutional amendment concerning the right to vote. (Applicants are asked 10 questions and must answer at least six correctly to pass.) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/la-na-citizenship28sep28,0,604800.story How a Patent Lawyer Mom Keeps Scales in Balance? Sharon Hwang laughs when you ask her how she does it all. As a full-time patent lawyer and mom of three, she's familiar with the question. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/q/chi-0930p2psep30,0,4722181.story Source: The primary sources cited above, BBC News, New York Times (NYT), Washington Post (WP), Mercury News, Bayarea.com, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Intellihealthnews, Deccan Chronicle (DC), the Hindu, Hindustan Times, Times of India, AP, Reuters, AFP, womenfitness.net, Biospace etc. Notice: The content of the articles is intended to provide general information. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. |
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