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  • SATURDAY MAY 6 2006 11:00 PM

Professor Works Out Tamiflu Issue Over Weekend

Submitted by Christopher

Edited by Christopher

Right now, countries outside of the United States are stockpiling the drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir) to prepare for a Bird Flu epidemic. Tamiflu seems to be the only anti-viral drug that can help people with the flu, and the United States is sorely under stocked with approximately 2 million doses for 295 million people. France has enough to cover 23.8% of its population, and Great Britain has enough Tamiflu to cover 25% of its population. A new plant to produce Tamiflu isn’t going to be up and running until the middle of this year. Some kind of medical breakthrough is desperately needed.

Enter Nobel laureate Elias Corey.

Elias Corey's hope is that his novel approach will mean the drug is cheaper to manufacture and more plentiful.
It took him just a few minutes to work out the method while relaxing at home one weekend, the US researcher says.
Tamiflu is the anti-viral drug of choice in the world preparations for possible pandemic flu.
The Swiss manufacturer Roche has given the World Health Organization five million courses of treatment to help stamp out any incipient outbreak of the disease at source.
And with the help of global partners, the company promises to be producing four hundred million courses a year by 2007.


The solution that he worked out over the weekend has to do with how the drug is manufactured. One of the key ingredients is star anise, a plant found in China that can only be harvested once a year. The active ingredient in the plant contains a carbon ring that “has no anti-viral properties” but is used to build the rest of the anti-viral drug as a “template.”

"I happened to be at home one Saturday morning, and I took some time out to think about the problem, and within a few minutes I came up with some ideas for solving it," he told the BBC's Science in Action programme.
"I called some of my students, and said, 'would you like to try something that could save many lives', and they agreed."
Just eight weeks later, the whole process had been worked through and refined, and the product compared with genuine Tamiflu. The recipe is described in the online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.


Using Corey’s method, four hundred million doses can be created in the next year.

Next weekend, Corey might tackle his overgrown garden, solve cancer, and maybe go down to the pub for a pint.

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Comments
OctoberSeven

OctoberSeven

Downers Grove, IL
December 2002

MAY 07, 2006 10:16 AM

pogojoe said:

jnfuk said:
Does anybody else remember SARS?

If it's not one thing, it's another.




Except of course for SARS not having killed millions in the past. 1931 pandemic flu did just that.



And with the bird flu having killed right around 100 people in the past decade it's well on it's way to equalling that.

BurningKrome

BurningKrome

San Jose, CA
April 2005

MAY 07, 2006 11:07 AM

Penfold said:

pogojoe said:

jnfuk said:
Does anybody else remember SARS?

If it's not one thing, it's another.




Except of course for SARS not having killed millions in the past. 1931 pandemic flu did just that.



And with the bird flu having killed right around 100 people in the past decade it's well on it's way to equalling that.


Um…well no. Pandemics don’t work that way. They don’t work their way up to Millions of people by a nice bell curve. They usually start out relatively obscurely, mutate into a highly communicable state for humans (and/or a significantly more deadly state) and then spread like wildfire.

The previous flu pandemics all began as bird flues that mutated. And, even with Tamiflu, we really aren’t any better equipped to stop them than we were in the 1800s…seeing what we haven’t figured out this whole “cure for viruses” thing.

Telltale

Telltale

USA
May 2004

MAY 07, 2006 11:15 AM

Hmmm... political leaders owning huge stakes in pharmaceutical companies that create cures for epidemic viruses...


Sound familiar?

FrankMask

FrankMask

Saint Paul, MN
June 2003

MAY 07, 2006 12:28 PM

Penfold said:
Meh...... The bird flu has gotten boring. Can we move on to the next epidemic-waiting-to-happen already?


I'm holding true to my vow not to give a shit until the headlines read

ZOMBIES: FUCKING EATING PEOPLE

SirPsychoSexy

SirPsychoSexy

Ridgewood, NJ
January 2004

MAY 07, 2006 01:11 PM

Frank said:

Penfold said:
Meh...... The bird flu has gotten boring. Can we move on to the next epidemic-waiting-to-happen already?


I'm holding true to my vow not to give a shit until the headlines read

ZOMBIES: FUCKING EATING PEOPLE


Dude, don't use the Z-word.

adjunct

adjunct

Philadelphia, PA
July 2002

MAY 07, 2006 01:32 PM

The thing that really surprises me is that Roche hadn't arranged sponsored research funding for somebody to figure out how to synthesize the star anise compound. Most drugs based on natural compounds are eventually made with synthesized compounds- it's almost always cheaper and gives you greater purity.

The thing that really doesn't surprise me is E. J. Corey doing something novel and brilliant. That's par for the course.

Fatality

Fatality

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

MAY 07, 2006 04:17 PM

jnfuk said:
Does anybody else remember SARS?

If it's not one thing, it's another.



Maybe we don't like the way that the media grabs onto these things, but they are real threats.

You all should be thankful that so much attention is paid to them so that they don't have the potential negative effects that they could have.

I have been studying the evolutionary properties of the H5N1 virus for the last year. Believe me, it is real. Whether it's "likely" to happen doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to it. Even if there's only a small percent chance that it could happen, we have to be prepared for it. There are a lot of similarities between this and the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic.

I just don't like that people put down scientific research that they know nothing about.

MrStitches

MrStitches

Brooklyn, NY
November 2003

MAY 07, 2006 04:23 PM

Fatality said:

jnfuk said:
Does anybody else remember SARS?

If it's not one thing, it's another.



Maybe we don't like the way that the media grabs onto these things, but they are real threats.

You all should be thankful that so much attention is paid to them so that they don't have the potential negative effects that they could have.

I have been studying the evolutionary properties of the H5N1 virus for the last year. Believe me, it is real. Whether it's "likely" to happen doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to it. Even if there's only a small percent chance that it could happen, we have to be prepared for it. There are a lot of similarities between this and the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic.

I just don't like that people put down scientific research that they know nothing about.




Not to mention that if there were a epidemic, the same people would be bitching that the government didn't do enough to prevent it on purpose in order to kill off a bunch of poor people or something.

Fatality

Fatality

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

MAY 07, 2006 04:33 PM

MrStitches said:

Fatality said:

jnfuk said:
Does anybody else remember SARS?

If it's not one thing, it's another.



Maybe we don't like the way that the media grabs onto these things, but they are real threats.

You all should be thankful that so much attention is paid to them so that they don't have the potential negative effects that they could have.

I have been studying the evolutionary properties of the H5N1 virus for the last year. Believe me, it is real. Whether it's "likely" to happen doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to it. Even if there's only a small percent chance that it could happen, we have to be prepared for it. There are a lot of similarities between this and the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic.

I just don't like that people put down scientific research that they know nothing about.




Not to mention that if there were a epidemic, the same people would be bitching that the government didn't do enough to prevent it on purpose in order to kill off a bunch of poor people or something.



Yeah, I was going to say something like that.

Christopher

Christopher

Portland, OR
November 2002

MAY 07, 2006 08:40 PM

Frank said:

Penfold said:
Meh...... The bird flu has gotten boring. Can we move on to the next epidemic-waiting-to-happen already?


I'm holding true to my vow not to give a shit until the headlines read

ZOMBIES: FUCKING EATING PEOPLE



The headline would read: When Hell Is Full, The Dead Walk The Earth.

jholtsnider

jholtsnider

I'm lost
February 2004

MAY 07, 2006 08:53 PM

I miss Ebola. Now that was a virus worthy of being afraid of all the time!

FrankMask

FrankMask

Saint Paul, MN
June 2003

MAY 07, 2006 09:10 PM

Fatality said:
I just don't like that people put down scientific research that they know nothing about.



It's less the science that most people condemn, than the ridiculous scare-mongering that comes with it. And, since vaccinations are hard to get and shotgun shells are easy to get, I'll continue to stockpile anti-zombie measures.

Fatality

Fatality

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

MAY 07, 2006 09:13 PM

Frank said:

Fatality said:
I just don't like that people put down scientific research that they know nothing about.



It's less the science that most people condemn, than the ridiculous scare-mongering that comes with it. And, since vaccinations are hard to get and shotgun shells are easy to get, I'll continue to stockpile anti-zombie measures.



That's why I said:

Maybe we don't like the way that the media grabs onto these things, but they are real threats.

noirkiss3

noirkiss3

Minneapolis, MN
April 2006

MAY 07, 2006 09:38 PM

I have to agree with Fatality better be safe, if nothing else a few people with alot of duck tape and water in the basement can breath easier. I wonder what people thought when they heard of the flu in 1918?

p.s. I did hear that this strain came from some of Rumsfelds clones being bit by monkeys then escaping to the fields of several asian countries, that Rumy, what will he get into next??!!!

BurningKrome

BurningKrome

San Jose, CA
April 2005

MAY 07, 2006 11:53 PM

Fatality said:

Frank said:

Fatality said:
I just don't like that people put down scientific research that they know nothing about.



It's less the science that most people condemn, than the ridiculous scare-mongering that comes with it. And, since vaccinations are hard to get and shotgun shells are easy to get, I'll continue to stockpile anti-zombie measures.



That's why I said:

Maybe we don't like the way that the media grabs onto these things, but they are real threats.


And, actually, the hysterical media hype...the attention from which assisted researchers in getting taken seriously, helped them in getting funded, helped the people of the world in taking it seriously and taking precautions when they traveled, ETC....had a fair amount to do with SARS NOT becoming a pandemic.

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