#502 | The second malaria vaccine works too; A vaccine gap exists; Game\’s up for obesity drugs?

Hello, and welcome back to The Kable for your Friday dose of all things life sciences.

In continuing good news on the malaria front, the data is in from trials of only the second-ever malaria vaccine. And the reports are encouraging for humans, less so for mosquitoes.

In what has been a busy week for the world\’s nodal healthcare body, the WHO has, with the Medicines Patent Pool, signed a tech transfer license with SD Biosensor to provide sub-licensees with the tech and know-how to make SDB’s rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) technology. This license was negotiated under the WHO\’s C-TAP initiative and is probably the last of its kind. Why? Because Covid is over, baby and C-TAP has to go. The WHO is replacing it with HTAP. In more WHO updates, the agency awarded its first certificates for eliminating industrially produced trans-fatty acids (iTFA) to Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand, recognising their effective policies, monitoring, and enforcement systems. Despite not meeting the 2018 goal to eliminate iTFA globally by the end of 2023, significant progress has been made, with 53 countries now having best practice policies, improving food safety for 46% of the world\’s population and potentially saving 183,000 lives annually.

The year may have changed, but try telling bird flu this – it\’s still hanging around. The latest victims are 200 baby penguins in Antarctica. Bird flu is also affecting humans in China and Cambodia. For Cambodia, it is the second case in humans already this year. In China, the one reported case resulted in a fatality with a 63-year-old woman dying from an infection which combined H3N2 and H10N5 strains, marking a cross-species transmission event.

Oh, and, bird flu is not the only event from 2023 to continue making ripples this year. Biopharma layoffs show no sign of stopping either. Novavax has let go of 12% of its workforce, while Pfizer said bye-bye to 52 more people in San Francisco. There are no reports yet on whether the 52 former Pfizer folk have said bye-bye to Pfizer.

In more good bad news, the first human has been supposedly implanted with a brain chip by Elon Musk\’s Neuralink. As with everything else related to that particular individual, details are sketchy here too.

And finally, if you\’re a man and want to minimise your propensity for obesity, you better fall in love with kimchi. According to a study that surveyed over 115,000 Korean adults, men who tucked into one to three servings of kimchi daily were less likely to be part of the obesity statistics, suggesting that maybe it\’s time to replace those dubious diet shakes with a jar of this tangy goodness – just don\’t go overboard, or you might end up fermenting your way to the opposite effect!

Stories Of The Week

Cancer, cancer everywhere. New cancer cases are expected to shoot up by a whopping 77% from 2022 to 2050, and it seems like our lifestyle choices – tobacco, alcohol, obesity, and that not-so-fresh air – are to blame. But it\’s not just about us living the high life; the world\’s getting older and more crowded, pushing the numbers from 20 million cases to a staggering 35 million. Lung cancer\’s leading the pack, with a special shoutout to persistent tobacco use in Asia, and it\’s hitting men harder than women. And while wealthier places might see the most new cases, it\’s the countries with less cash that will really feel the pinch, facing a double whammy in cancer deaths. Just before World Cancer Day, the WHO\’s dropping some truth bombs about how uneven the fight against cancer is globally. Despite all the tech and treatments we\’ve got, where you live can still be a life-or-death factor in cancer care. It\’s a mix of needing better data, more inclusive health services, and a whole lot of political will to make sure everyone gets a fair shot at beating cancer. And political will, friends, is something we know is not lacking anywhere in the world.
(WHO)

Heating up the health crisis. In good news, well, not really; if cancer won\’t get you in the next 30 years, climate change will. After having already claimed 4 million humans this century, a number experts believe is understated, climate change is expected to account for 14.5 million people by 2050, according to a new report from the WEF. Yeah, it\’s no longer about just starving polar bears and melting ice caps; climate change is brewing a health crisis that could rival the body count of history\’s gnarliest plagues. As always, the Global South is getting hit hardest, facing the double trouble of severe weather events and healthcare systems that are already on the brink. And, oh boy, floods are the new grim reaper, with droughts and diseases like malaria not far behind. The silver lining? There\’s a plan on the table to turn things around, involving slashing emissions and treating climate change like the public health emergency it is. But with big gaps in data, especially in regions that are out of the spotlight, we\’re kinda flying blind here. So, well yes, please do save the turtles, but also maybe see if we can avoid becoming part of a climate change casualty statistic? On the plus side, who even knows 14.5 million people, though?
(WEF)

So many vaccines, not enough gaps. Not! Boy, it sure looks like the vaccine world\’s got its wires crossed a bit – turns out we\’re up to our eyeballs in Covid-19 vaccine projects, with a whopping 28% of global vaccine trials gunning after the same target. Meanwhile, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) is waving its arms, trying to draw some attention to the fact that other nasty bugs like West Nile virus and Lyme disease are almost being left in the dust, with barely a vaccine trial to their names. Despite the pandemic giving vaccine investments a temporary shot in the arm, hitting a high in 2021, things are slipping back with venture bucks drying up faster than you can say \”booster shot.\” And to top it off, regular folks are getting a bit weary of the whole jab affair, with vaccine uptake not quite hitting the mark. BIO experts reckon we\’re missing some pieces of the puzzle, not just in cracking tough diseases like HIV but also in getting the market to pay attention to where vaccines are desperately needed.
(BIO)

Breakthroughs

Genetic cure for obesity? In the bustling world of obesity treatments, a multi-billion-dollar industry is on the brink of a major shake-up, all thanks to some clever mice and their tiny mitochondria. Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine discovered that obesity messes with mitochondria in fat cells, making them smaller and less effective at burning fat, a process controlled by a single gene. When they knocked out this gene in mice, they hit the jackpot: the mice could indulge in a high-fat diet without packing on the pounds, effectively dodging obesity. This breakthrough shines a hopeful light on a future where obesity drugs might take a backseat to treatments that target our cellular energy factories directly, potentially rendering current obesity drugs obsolete. It\’s like finding the body\’s secret cheat code for weight management, hinting at a future where we might be able to eat our cake and not gain weight too, thanks to some microscopic mitochondrial magic.
(Nature Metabolism)

Bottom line

A foggy fiasco. In the grand bazaar of environmental challenges, India\’s air pollution saga reads like a tragicomic opera, where a $1 billion investment seems to have vanished into the smoggy airwithout making much of a dent. Despite the National Clean Air Programme\’s (NCAP) ambitious goals and a dramatic infusion of cash, the scoreboard reads like a gamer\’s nightmare – only 16 cities out of over a hundred actually hit their pollution reduction targets. And here\’s the kicker: even as the government plays whack-a-mole with pollution sources, the plot thickens with tales of unspent funds, underwhelming data transparency, and policy interventions that sometimes seem as effective as a chocolate teapot.
(Health Policy Watch)

The measles detective. Remember measles? It\’s back in the spotlight, not for a nostalgia tour, but because it\’s causing outbreaks everywhere from the UK to the US, with hundreds infected despite the existence of the MMR vaccine. Amidst this, the WHO is practically waving red flags, urging countries to brace for action. But here\’s a twist: could the same wastewater surveillance network that tracked Covid offer a sneak peek into measles outbreaks? Scientists are intrigued, given measles\’ incredible knack for spreading even before the iconic rash shows up. This virus also sneaks into our urine, and yes, our sewage, raising the possibility that we could catch it lurking in wastewater before it gatecrashes communities. While the concept has some water under the bridge in research, with mixed results, the potential for an early warning system is bubbling up. Imagine zeroing in on measles RNA at airports or in areas with low vaccination rates – could this be the next big thing in public health, or are we just chasing measles down the drain? Only time, and perhaps more wastewater detective work, will tell.
(MIT Technology Review)

Long reads

A hot mess. 2024 ushers in a critical phase in climate change, with unprecedented temperature records in 2023 signalling a deepening crisis. This trend isn\’t just a series of anomalies but a shift towards more frequent and intense \”grey swan\” events – predictable but never-before-seen climate extremes. Scientists are observing nonlinear trends in various climate dynamics, exacerbating natural disasters such as floods and wildfires. This alarming escalation, driven largely by human activities like fossil fuel use, marks a new, unpredictable climatic era. However, as this piece in The Atlantic argues, the severity of future impacts depends on our immediate collective action towards systemic environmental change.
(The Atlantic)

Oh, and Gopal Nair, who has a birthday today, doesn\’t want you to see this. Gopal, if you\’re reading this, thank you for being the best mentor and mascot we could ask for. You are loved and cherished.