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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had approved the drug at the same time, according to an analysis published in the Harvard Business Review, which is not peer-reviewed.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. 

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International

Fire in India’s Jhansi Hospital kills 10 newborns

At least 10 newborns have died following a fire in the neonatal unit of a hospital in Jhansi, India, which was attributed to a faulty oxygen machine, authorities reported on Saturday, adding that 39 babies were rescued.

“Unfortunately, 10 infants have died,” said Brajesh Pathak, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, regarding the fire that occurred on Friday night.

The fire started at 10:30 PM (17:00 GMT) at the Maharani Lakshmibai Medical University in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The rescued babies, all only a few days old, were moved to another area of the hospital for treatment.

Dr. Narendra Senga, the director of a medical faculty attached to the hospital, also confirmed the death toll of 10 infants.

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International

Seven british citizens arrested in Spain for hashish trafficking 1.2 tons seized

Seven British citizens were arrested in Spain for hashish trafficking in an operation that led to the seizure of 1.2 tons of the drug, which is made from cannabis resin, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior reported on Saturday.

“National Police agents, in collaboration with the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the UK, have dismantled an organization allegedly dedicated to transporting drugs in trucks in Marbella and Elche,” the ministry stated in a press release.

“Agents seized 1,200 kilos of hashish and arrested seven British citizens,” the report specified.

The drugs were found in Marbella and Fuengirola, in southern Spain, as well as in Elche, in the southeastern region.

Part of the hashish was hidden in “large plastic barrels filled with fine mortar sand.”

In addition, the police seized over €63,000 in cash, five passenger vehicles, and a heavy-duty truck.

All of the detainees have been placed in pretrial detention.

Spain serves as the gateway for most of the hashish sold in Europe, due to its proximity to North Africa, the main production area.

In 2022, Spain seized 324.7 tons of hashish, according to the latest available official annual data.

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International

Sinaloa cartel network dismantled in Spain following kidnapping and ransom incident

Fourteen members of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel were arrested in Spain following an investigation that began with the kidnapping and murder of an associate, the Spanish National Police announced on Sunday.

“The dismantled criminal network, based in Catalonia, is allegedly involved in the kidnapping and death of a man whose body was found in a wooded area of the region,” explained the National Police in a statement. The victim had traveled from Italy to meet with some of the leaders of the gang.

The criminal organization was “mainly composed of Mexican individuals” and was “linked to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.”

The victim, a 46-year-old man, was allegedly working for the organization and had traveled to Barcelona from Italy to meet with leaders of the criminal network. The kidnapping took place between late May and June, and the victim’s family in Kosovo alerted the police after receiving a ransom demand of €240,000 (approximately $253,000). The family paid part of the ransom, $32,000 in cryptocurrency.

The victim’s body, whose nationality was not disclosed, was found in August in a forest, showing signs of violence and in an advanced state of decomposition.

The arrested individuals are allegedly connected to drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, and murder. They received packages from Mexico containing methamphetamine soaked into pieces of clothing, which were sent to Catalonia. Once in Spain, they extracted the drug in a laboratory they operated.

The Sinaloa cartel is named after the northwestern Mexican state where it was founded and remains one of the most important criminal organizations in the world, despite the incarceration of two of its historic leaders, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, in the United States.

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