HEALTH

INDEPENDENT, UK - Cancer treatment could be on the brink of a revolution
following a study showing that it may be possible significantly to
improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs without causing side
effects. Scientists have conducted a series of pioneering experiments
demonstrating a new way of making tumor cells far more susceptible to
attack with extremely low doses of anti-cancer drugs. The development
offers hope that the gruesome side effects of chemotherapy, suffered by
tens of thousands of cancer patients, may at some point become a thing
of the past. In addition to making chemotherapy more effective at
eliminating tumor cells from the body, the study suggests that it is
also possible to lower dosage levels to a point where toxic side effects
from the drugs are unlikely to occur. The breakthrough was made possible
with a revolutionary medical technique called RNA interference, which
allows scientists to "silence" certain genes in a pioneering development
first highlighted by The Independent in 2002.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2442002.ece


CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY - Manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, medical
devices and other health products spent nearly $182 million on federal
lobbying from January 2005 through June 2006, a Center for Public
Integrity study of disclosure records shows. Of that total, drug
companies and their trade groups spent most of it, or $155 million,
lobbying on a variety of issues ranging from protecting lucrative drug
patents to keeping lower-priced Canadian drugs from being imported to
the United States Drug interests employed about 1,100 lobbyists to do
their bidding in each of the past two years.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=823

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