disease dilemmas 5 Flashcards
medicines from nature and conservation issues
1 - Willow: Alkalin: Salicin, provides Aspirin in tree bark. Needs temperate climates, grows on river banks.
2 - Poppies: provide morphine, hot (>30), clay soils which are fertile and moisture relentive, used for pain relief.
3 - Foxgloves: Alkaloid: Digitalis, temperate climate, high rainfall, acidic soils, heart drug.
Conservation:
1 -supply and deman: rising demand due to 80% of people in LIDCs reely on traditional medicines, plus new pharmaceutical drugs.
2 - survival of wild medicinal plants: overharvesting is widespread, sourcing from wild is unsustainable, 14 medicinal plants at risk of extinction.
3 - habitat destruction: lots of deforestation, TRF contains 70% of plant species, only 1% has been screened for medicinal uses.
4 - conserving habitats: some companies work with local people.
case study of prunus africana
Found in Sub-saharan Africa grows in tropical forests in mountains (1000-2500m), wet conditions, fertile soils which are well drained.
- It has long been used in traditional african medicine via the bark. It is used to treat prostrate conditions with an alkaloid called pygeum.
- Cameroon is the biggest producer (62%).
- European pharmaceutical companies are accused of biopiracy as they pay the harvesters little ($2/kg) but make lots of profit ($800/kg).
- Intellectual property rights and patent is held by a french entrepreneur - he receives all royalties, when local communities discovered it first.
- Prunus Africana is being overharvested and is a vulnerable species: 100,000 trees are harvested a year.
- controls: only mature healthy trees with min 30cm decimetre can be harvested, 1/2 bark can be removed up to the first branches, each tree for harvest has a tag and GPS.
pharmaceutical tncs and introduction to pfizer
- TNCs apply for IPRs meaning they can patent and copyright their branded drug and sell it at a higher price, illegal to make copies for 20 years.
- pfizer: founded in 1849 with HQ in The spiral NYC, revenue of $100.3 billion, 36 manufacturing sites worldwide in 185 countries.
- Has 757 drugs, every drug has 1500 scientists, 500,000 lab tests and 36 clinical trials.
guinea worm: strategies
Guinea worm is infectious, communicable, zoonotic but non-contagious. When an infected bathes their foot in water, the worm explodes lavae, whichy are consumed by water fleas. People dirnk the water and become infected, a worm grows through them and protrudes out of the foot.
Top down: The WHO: the world health assembly: mapped all endemic villages and provided effective case containment measures in them, implemeneted scientific interventions e.g. access to safe water, reporting on a regular basis, managing the certification process for global eradication.
The carter Centre: educated villages on disease prevention e.g. filtering water, building wells and using groundwater.
Bottom up: Women’s red cross in Ghana: women were responsible for water sourcing so responsibility of women voluntees included: monmitoring and reporting new caes, ensuring infected ndin’t contaminate water sources, distributing water filters. identifying water sources used that require treatment. Guinea worm was eliminated in Ghana in 2013.
pfizer: the hero or villain?
- the hero: ‘an accord for a healthier world initiative, launched may 2022. Pfizer will make all their patented medicines and vaccines available to LIDCs on a non profit basis. Around 500 productis, will cover 1.2 billion people in 45 LIDCs.
- also covid vaccine: Made vaccines affordable for americans, company agreed to donate 40 million vaccines to poorer countries. Pledged to donate more than $70 million in medicine in India.
- the villain: Did not sell the corona virus vaccine at cost and as a result turned a profit on the vaccine. %3.5 billion revenue with 3 months. Vaccine is pfizers most lucrative product. Profits from vaccine are in the high 20% range. At the same time, countries were struggling with covid e.g. India. Vaccines were concentrated in advanced countries.
