scholarly journals Nanomedicines in the European translational process

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Bremer-Hoffmann ◽  
Valeria Amenta ◽  
François Rossi

AbstractIn 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released an update of the report on “Priority Medicines for Europe and the World” with the aim to bridge the gap between public health needs and the current research and development priorities. A number of emerging technologies are currently explored for their potential to respond to the identified unmet medical needs. Nanotechnology has the potential to offer scientific/technical solutions for some of these pharmaceutical gaps. The present report investigates to what extent projects funded by the European Commission will lead to innovative formulations as well as new therapeutic concepts, if clinical studies in European Member States investigating nanomedicines and finally if nanotech based products authorised in the European Union will contribute to identified public health needs.

Author(s):  
Alok Tiwari

ABSTRACTCOVID-19 epidemic is declared as the public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation in the second week of March 2020. This disease originated from China in December 2019 has already caused havoc around the world, including India. The first case in India was reported on 30th January 2020, with the cases crossing 6000 on the day paper was written. Complete lockdown of the nation for 21 days and immediate isolation of infected cases are the proactive steps taken by the authorities. For a better understanding of the evolution of COVID-19 in the country, Susceptible-Infectious-Quarantined-Recovered (SIQR) model is used in this paper. It is predicted that actual infectious population is ten times the reported positive case (quarantined) in the country. Also, a single case can infect 1.55 more individuals of the population. Epidemic doubling time is estimated to be around 4.1 days. All indicators are compared with Brazil and Italy as well. SIQR model has also predicted that India will see the peak with 22,000 active cases during the last week of April followed by reduction in active cases. It may take complete July for India to get over with COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siddharth Raj Yadav ◽  
Rohit Kumar ◽  
Nitesh Gupta ◽  
Pranav Ish ◽  
Shibdas Chakrabarti ◽  
...  

To the EditorNovel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first notified in December 2019 from Wuhan, China. Now, it has spread rapidly and has been declared a pandemic affecting over 200 countries with widespread morbidity and mortality. It has been postulated that the most vulnerable population are the elderly, people living in crowded areas, children and immune-compromised individuals, such as people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The correlation of tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malnutrition are well documented and hence, people with tuberculosis should be considered as special population in this pandemic. TB is an ancient disease among humans recorded as far back as seventy thousand years which was declared a global public health emergency in 1993 by the World Health Organisation (WHO). India has the highest TB burden in the world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Kate Hall

The name Wilson will be forever associated with co-author Jungner and ten principles of population screening published in 1968 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as Public Health Papers No 34. These principles have since been used, modified or extended throughout much of Europe and beyond. Very little was known about Dr. J.M.G. Wilson and his life and how he came to write this monograph until the Silver Jubilee meeting of the International Society for Neonatal Screening held in The Hague in 2016. The opening session was chosen to be ‘The Wilson and Jungner criteria for screening for disease’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 189-204
Author(s):  
Robert Socha

The problems raised in this article focus on the issues related to the solutions adopted by the Polish legislator as to the protection of the state border in the context of an international threat. The author presents the legal conditions related to the probability of temporary reintroduction of border control for persons crossing the state border regarded as an internal border of the European Union in the event of a threat to public health. The background for these considerations are legal regulations concerning the change in the organization of the protection of the state border of the Republic of Poland, as introduced due to the World Health Organization’s announcement of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus leading to the COVID-19 disease.


2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-55
Author(s):  
Semra Čavaljuga ◽  
Michael Faulde ◽  
Jerrold J. Scharninghausen

At this moment, public health authorities, physicians and scientists around the world are struggling to cope with a severe and rapidly spreading new disease in humans called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) this appears to be the first severe and easily transmissible new disease to emerge in the 21st century. Though much about the disease remains poorly understood, including the details of the causative virus, we do know that it has features that allow it to spread rapidly along international air travel routes. As of 10 May 2003, a cumulative 7296 probable SARS cases with 526 deaths have been reported from 30 countries on three continents (WHO, ProMED). In the past week, more than 1000 new probable cases and 96 deaths were reported globally. This represents an increase of 119 new cases and 8 new deaths compared with 9 May 2003 (China (85), Taiwan (23), and Hong Kong (7) represented the overwhelming majority, with one additional case each reported from France, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States). Only in China, as of 10 May 2003 (WHO) total of 4884 with 235 deaths have been reported. Some outbreaks have reassuring features.


Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann Meyer ◽  
Rosina Ehmann ◽  
Geoffrey L. Smith

Widespread vaccination programmes led to the global eradication of smallpox, which was certified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and, since 1978, there has been no case of smallpox anywhere in the world. However, the viable variola virus (VARV), the causative agent of smallpox, is still kept in two maximum security laboratories in Russia and the USA. Despite the eradication of the disease smallpox, clandestine stocks of VARV may exist. In a rapidly changing world, the impact of an intentional VARV release in the human population would nowadays result in a public health emergency of global concern: vaccination programmes were abolished, the percentage of immunosuppressed individuals in the human population is higher, and an increased intercontinental air travel allows for the rapid viral spread of diseases around the world. The WHO has authorised the temporary retention of VARV to enable essential research for public health benefit to take place. This work aims to develop diagnostic tests, antiviral drugs, and safer vaccines. Advances in synthetic biology have made it possible to produce infectious poxvirus particles from chemicals in vitro so that it is now possible to reconstruct VARV. The status of smallpox in the post-eradication era is reviewed.


2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine S. Lindars ◽  
Jeff T. Spickett

The information on several environmental public health journal homepages has been assessed for its quality and quantity, using selected key criteria. These criteria included the extent of text available, the ability to search the website, the table of contents free via email, and the presence of hyper-links. A high degree of variability is seen, with services and facilities offered ranging from none to the entire journal available for no fee. The journal homepages that are the most comprehensive are those that are associated with major institutions and hence financed by contributions from their members or public money, i.e. the British Medical Association, the World Health Organisation and the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The journal homepages associated with these institutions offered full text of both current and archived issues as well as additions such as the ability to search other sites, web links, and in some cases hyper-linked references and information on related articles. The provision of text on the Internet should be an essential aim for all journal Homepages, to ensure fast and effective conveyance of information to health professionals. Asia Pac J Public Health 2000;12(1): 32-36


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 173-191
Author(s):  
Marta Hoffmann

This article presents selected results of a research project entitled Medicalization strategies of the World Health Organization1 in which the author analyzed and described three WHO policies characterized by a medicalizing approach. These three policies were compared with each other in terms of their conceptual (narrative) and institutional (practical) levels of medicalization and their effects. In order to better understand the role of a medicalized discourse in the global activities of the WHO, these three cases were also compared to one non-medicalizing policy. The aim of this article is twofold: firstly, to present two cases analyzed as part of the project, namely, the tobacco policy (a ‘medicalized’ one) and the ageing policy (a ‘non-medicalized’ one) and secondly, to consider the possible influence of WHO discourse on tobacco and ageing on public health policies in the European Union.


Author(s):  
Hanna Falk Erhag ◽  
Ulrika Lagerlöf Nilsson ◽  
Therese Rydberg Sterner ◽  
Ingmar Skoog

AbstractIn 2020, for the first time in history, there were more people in the world aged 60 years and over than there were children below the age of 5 years. The population aged over 65 years is projected to increase from one billion in 2019 to more than two billion in 2050, and those aged over 80 years are projected to increase from 143 to 426 million, with the largest increase occurring in the developing world (UN World Population Prospects, 2019). This demographic trend constitutes the largest global health challenge, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The European Union has set it as one of the major challenges in Horizon 2020 and it has important societal implications (European Commission, 2020). The proportion of retired individuals will increase, leading to an increased ratio between those who have exited the workforce and those still active in the labour market. Thus, ageing represents a global societal and scientific challenge requiring integrated efforts, multidisciplinary translational research approaches and social innovations that build on ideas of potentials and capabilities, emphasising the value of old age.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A5.3-A6
Author(s):  
Agnes Saint-Raymond ◽  
Martin Harvey ◽  
Maria Cavaller

BackgroundThe European legislation introduced in 2004 (under article 58) a collaboration tool to increase access to high quality and effective medicines in low- and middle-income countries. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) can provide scientific opinions on medicines intended for significant public health needs, in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the relevant ‘target’ non-EU regulatory authorities. This EU-Medicines4all (EU-M4all) initiative contributes to the broader Global Health Mandate of the EU.MethodsWe contacted the pharmaceutical companies holding ‘article 58’ scientific opinions and compiled the number of actual approvals based on these opinions.ResultsNine medicines have been assessed so far, most of them for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and maternal/new-born health. Although this figure may appear low, the impact of the corresponding scientific opinions is much wider. Approvals were granted in 66 different countries worldwide, 38 of which are in Africa, based on these opinions.DiscussionSuch scientific opinions on the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicines are provided by the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP). Prior to this, it is recommended to agree on the data to be generated through scientific advice. The opinions are based on the same standards as used for those approved for Europe, with considerations for local conditions of use. To promote reliance on EMA scientific outputs and awareness of the procedure, two training events with regulators from Southern and from Western Africa are organised in partnership with WHO, NEPAD and local regulators in June 2018.ConclusionWe have shown that this ‘article 58’ procedure has a true impact and we encourage applications by companies developing medicines, aimed to prevent or treat diseases of significant public health interest, to be marketed outside the EU. This will ensure timely access of medicines by patients in target countries all over the world.


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