International

Cancer drug cooperation could save 1.5 mn lives a year: researchers

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AFP

Around 1.5 million lives could be saved every year if the world worked together to more swiftly approve new cancer drugs, researchers said Tuesday.

The figure was based on how long it took two recent cancer drugs to be approved across the world after they were given the green light by the United States.

Pembrolizumab, an effective treatment for most lung cancers, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016.

More than 600,000 years of patients’ lives could have been saved if Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan and the European Union had approved the drug at the same time, according to an analysis published in the Harvard Business Review, which is not peer-reviewed.

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The authors, including US oncologist Bobby Daly, also looked at enzalutamide, which is used to treat prostate cancer.

Enzalutamide was approved by the FDA in 2012, but was not authorised in China for another seven years, partly due to a requirement for separate trials to be carried out there.

The analysis by members of the Bloomberg New Economy International Cancer Coalition found that 284,000 years of patient lives could have been saved if other countries had approved the drug alongside the FDA.

Extrapolating out from their findings, the researchers estimated that if each of the approximately seven cancer drugs approved by the FDA a year were authorised worldwide, it would reduce the number of cancer-related deaths by 10-20 percent.

That represents roughly 1.5 million of the around 10 million people who die of cancer every year.

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‘Challenging’ for doctors

“In China alone an estimated 500,000 patient life-years could be saved through harmonisation of trial requirements that have delayed patient access to treatment,” former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, co-chair of the Bloomberg cancer coalition, said in a statement.

Mary Gospodarowicz, also a member of the coalition, said that it was “challenging” as an oncologist in Canada when a drug was approved in the US but would take years to be able to prescribe it to her patients.

The study assumed that the rest of the world had the infrastructure to diagnose and treat cancer as well as the US, which is not always the case, Gospodarowicz told AFP via phone from the World Cancer Congress in Geneva on Tuesday.

But it served as an example of how “removing the barriers to drug approval would be beneficial to patients around the world,” said the former president of the Union for International Cancer Control, which is holding the congress.

The authors of the analysis called on countries to embrace Project Orbis, a US-led framework aiming to get cancer drugs trialled and approved at the same time in multiple countries.

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“The US has already made significant progress in setting up the regulatory infrastructure for cancer treatment with the Project Orbis initiative and the task ahead is to take that framework and internationalise it,” former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

International

Death toll from southern Spain train crash rises to 40

The death toll from the train accident that occurred on Sunday in southern Spain has risen to 40, according to investigative sources cited by EFE on Monday afternoon.

Since early Monday, search operations have focused on the damaged carriages of a Renfe train bound for Huelva, which collided with the last derailed cars of an Iryo train traveling from Málaga to Madrid after it left the tracks.

The crash has also left more than 150 people injured. Of these, 41 remain hospitalized, including 12 in intensive care units at hospitals across the Andalusia region.

More than 220 Civil Guard officers are working at the site, searching the railway line and surrounding areas for key evidence to help identify victims and determine the causes of the accident.

The tragedy has revived memories of the deadliest railway disasters in Europe in recent decades. In Spain, the most severe occurred on July 24, 2013, when an Alvia train derailed near Santiago de Compostela, killing 80 people and injuring 130 others.

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At the European level, the worst rail disaster took place on June 3, 1998, in Eschede, northern Germany, when a high-speed train struck a bridge pillar at 200 kilometers per hour, resulting in 98 deaths and 120 injuries.

International

Spain’s Prime Minister pledges transparency after train crash kills at least 39

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pledged on Monday to ensure “absolute transparency” regarding the causes of a train crash that killed at least 39 people on Sunday in southern Spain, warning that the death toll could still rise.

The fatal accident occurred in the Andalusia region, where the number of confirmed deaths reached 39 by Monday morning, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior.

Authorities were preparing to deploy heavy machinery to lift several derailed train cars. “We are waiting for cranes to be installed this morning to lift cars one, two and three of the Alvia train, which suffered the most damage,” said Andalusian regional president Juanma Moreno Bonilla on regional television. “It is likely that once they are lifted, we may find more victims,” he added.

The disaster also left more than 120 people injured. As of Monday afternoon, 43 victims remained hospitalized, including 12 in intensive care, according to emergency services.

International

Over 160 christian worshippers kidnapped in Kaduna Church attacks

More than 160 Christian worshippers were abducted on Sunday during coordinated attacks carried out by armed gangs on two churches in a remote village in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, according to a cleric and a United Nations report accessed by AFP on Monday.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has witnessed a renewed surge in mass kidnappings since November, prompting the United States government to carry out military strikes on Christmas Day in the northwestern state of Sokoto.

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Nigerian armed groups of targeting Christians, describing the violence as a form of “genocide” against the religious community.

According to Reverend Joseph Hayab, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the north, the attackers arrived in large numbers, blocked access to the churches, and forced worshippers to flee into nearby forests.

“The attackers came in large numbers, sealed off the entrances to the churches, and drove the faithful into the bush,” Hayab told AFP.