Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@qoto.org

"The US price of Humira, which AbbVie has increased more than 20 times to exploit its monopoly there, is finally under pressure. Having been legally shielded until now, the drug this year faces competition from nine “biosimilars” such as Amgen’s Amjevita. This may bring relief to patients who have faced bills of thousands of dollars, despite being insured."

https://www.ft.com/content/a8685c8d-60da-4fe8-9bba-ec1ba3bf62cc

"When I was a young person, libraries were where I went to find stories that made me feel I could fit in, not only in North Dakota, but in the wider world. But two pieces of legislation that may soon be signed into law in North Dakota would make it possible to restrict libraries and, in some cases, to imprison librarians."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/24/opinion/libraries-sex-books-north-dakota.html

A step back for antivirals: the EMA gives molnupiravir thumbs down, based on the lack of strong evidence for efficacy.
#covid19 #covid

'La Agencia Europea del Medicamento (EMA) considera que la falta de eficacia del molnupiravir, comercializado como Lagevrio y que fue el primer tratamiento oral contra la covid utilizado de forma experimental durante la pandemia, hace que su comercialización y uso en los sistemas sanitarios no sea recomendable.'

https://elpais.com/sociedad/2023-02-24/la-ema-rechaza-la-comercializacion-del-primer-tratamiento-oral-contra-la-covid-por-falta-de-eficacia.html

'Toda una generación de niños de Caldes D‘Estrac, a 40 kilómetros de Barcelona, quedó marcada entre 1970 y 1975 por los abusos del sacerdote Josep Vendrell Cortasa, según denuncian al menos seis antiguos alumnos suyos en el colegio e internado del pueblo, donde era director, además de párroco de la iglesia de Santa María y responsable del grupo scout.'

https://elpais.com/sociedad/2023-02-25/un-cura-depredador-sexual-de-menores-paso-por-parroquias-de-barcelona-impune-y-encubierto-durante-tres-decadas.html

Progress.

"In my professional lifetime, neonatal mortality has gone from 30 per thousand to 5 per thousand. The babies I couldn’t take care of when I was a house staff now largely go home and live full lives. You wouldn’t believe how robust a baby is and how well they can heal and recover from real challenges."

https://www.jci.org/articles/view/168557

Bear.

#Ceramics #ArtMastodon #handmade

https://madalenaparreira.com/Hunchbacksociety

Had a great time yesterday opening the Algarve University Hospital Center's (CHUA) conference, speaking on the research origins of some of today's key drugs & the limits of translation.

And Rous' hen, of course :)

"Students and academics at Oxford university have called for a sweeping review of policies around its relationship with donors, following revelations that the elite institution courted the Sackler family even after others cut ties."

https://www.ft.com/content/6a42e764-46a1-4bdf-a76e-d548d78db8fc

"The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is quietly returning £1.6 billion (US$1.9 billion) in funding to the Treasury that had been earmarked for research collaborations with the European Union in its 2022–23 budget. But the government swears that the money is not lost to UK science."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00546-8

"Ventura usa a mentira para fazer passar a sua mensagem e, quando apanhado a mentir, demonstra não ter passado pela fila daquilo que permanentemente apregoa: vergonha."

https://www.publico.pt/2023/02/24/opiniao/opiniao/entrevista-ventura-2040082

Albufeira

@bufalo1973@xarxa.cloud @seatsixtyone I scream with it, since I live in Lisbon and one of my best friends is in Badajoz (and Merida's Roman ruins and museum are fantastic). The absence of a Lisbon Madrid link is absurd. It used to exist, train links are worse now than they were 20 years ago! But sure let's build more airports...

"Here, we show that in both normal and malignant B-cells, CD20 down-regulation commonly occurs via alternative splicing in its 5′ UTR."

#preprint

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.19.529123v1