Is it ethical for the role they are playing the big pharmaceutical companies in medical research? According to Nobel Laureate Richard Roberts, no. "This is a wakeup call. A pharmaceutical companies are not interested in vaccines because they work. They are dedicated to drugs such as Viagra. But vaccines work and no need to take it over and over again , so that companies are not interested. Of course, vaccines have risks but they are the best medications. surveyors should not Hollywood stars who say that vaccines are dangerous. The same happens with antibiotics. Pharmaceutical companies have neglected the production of antibiotics because they cure and therefore only seek drugs for chronic diseases, to keep the market ", criticized the award-winning discoverer of introns.
Roberts's diatribe against medical companies was a response to the role of vaccines in the epidemiological crisis of influenza A, which was discussed at the Bureau Developments in global health: From flu to the human genome which also Nobel prizes participated Werner Arber and Hamilton Smith, along with Clyde Hutchinson, distinguished researcher of the Venter Institute, Javier Toledo, the Public Health Department of Aragon, Begoña Alonso, of the Department of Saude-Galicia, Horacio Rubio, the UNAM of Mexico, and Albert Jovell, social entrepreneur Laporte Foundation.
The solution to health problems through customization treatments is a perspective not too distant in time. Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith said said that "in 10 years will be possible to sequence the DNA of every child born, enabling us to obtain genetic medical treatment. The main obstacle is that we have sequenced the genes of millions of children to know what the Each person's response to the individualized treatment. We have to collect thousands of gene sequences of human being, put them into a processor and its correlation. So we can predict that certain genes may be susceptible to be treated medically in a way to a disease, although get here we will take decades. "
But genetic research will not only be applied to medicine. Nobel laureate Werner Arber said that "with the genetic information we can modify a couple of dozen of agricultural products so that these plants will become more rich in the ingredients we need. In decades to build plants we used in our food, not rot and may be used in arid soils or wetlands. " In this sense, Clyde Hutchinson gave the example of research being carried out with rice Golden type, whose amino acid rebalancing can save lives in people suffering from malnutrition. Toledo recalled
there are other emfermedades where economic interests are intertwined and hard to find a solution: "In Spain every day 150 people die from the consumption of snuff, six people per hour, one every 10 minutes. It is a preventable disease, but has many tabaquimso economic connotations, is an epidemic created by man against man himself. "
Regarding the crisis of Influenza A Roberts reported that the media "have acted out of control. They have released many unverified information" and that politicians "got the disease on the agenda because they thought it was a good theme and collaborated offering a very bad information. " Finally, the Nobel prize also criticized professionals "who have used a Sisema larvae to investigate the vaccine, so do not come in time."
to epidemics of this kind, Begoña Alonso highlighted the role of social networks. "We need to find allies outside actors to launch messages reach the population and measure the extent of such messages. There is some distance between government and people as we try to adapt our language. Seldom evaluates the impact and whether campaign comprised of the population. "
Toledo added that, despite some flaws, global action in the treatment of influenza A had been exemplary, but "we've forgotten give the same global response to the Millennium Development Goals. "
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