Word: dose
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...market, to public-health officials in the developing world at a loss totaling more than $253 million - not counting the millions spent on R&D. That's added up, the firm reports, to more than 550,000 lives saved. In late January, the company unveiled the first pediatric dose of Coartem - less bitter and easier to swallow than the adult version - which is expected to help in the battle against a disease that kills more than 700,000 children under 5 each year...
Almost from the get-go, however, Coartem's high $2.40-a-dose price tag was criticized by public-health officials and activists. Dr. Daniel Vasella, CEO of Novartis, says the company realized it was pointless to try to sell a medication to people who couldn't afford it. So in 2001 the company signed an agreement with the World Health Organization to bring the price down to $1 per dose, or just about the cost of making it. Then the drugmaker went one step further, slashing that price again, to 80 cents - in other words, taking a 20% loss. Meanwhile...
...proved particularly difficult. The problem lies in how to successfully monitor the supply chain while still minimizing costs, and so far, no good solution has been found. Vasella recalls visiting a Catholic mission in a Tanzanian village recently and finding that the nuns there were still paying $1 per dose. "We have all the intermediaries marking up the price dramatically," he says. "We've heard reports of some charging as high as $8 a dose to get Coartem to remote areas...
There is also the issue of drug resistance, which makes finding the next new breakthrough antimalarial all the more vital. Until that happens, Novartis hopes its new pediatric dose - which the company spent the past four years developing - is the next step toward the eventual eradication of a childhood killer...
Hannah is now on a one-month reprieve from her daily pudding treatments; in four weeks, she will be challenged again with the same 5,000-mg dose of peanut flour. If she does not have a reaction, Burks will deem her "peanut tolerant" and allergy-free. If that happens, she will be among the first generation to conquer a food allergy. And perhaps it will be this scientific success that will provide the ultimate antidote to the hype and hyperbole. "We want people to understand what they have to do in case of an allergic reaction...