Scientists looking to take the ouch out of vaccines
By Cliff Edwards
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The days
of being on pins and needles
while you wait for your flu shot
or insulin injection could soon be
a thing of the past.
Devices that deliver drugs into
the skin at the speed of a super
sonic jet, controlled-release mi
crochips, and foods genetically
modified to carry medicine were
just a few of the approaches being
discussed at a gathering of scien
tists as alternatives to the needle
and syringe.
“Why don’t people like nee
dles? Very simply, it hurts — and
people don’t like what hurts,”
said Mark Prausnitz, a chemical
engineering professor from the
Georgia Institute of Technology.
“The needle’s been around for
quite a while, but we believe
there are ways of achieving better
drug delivery and getting across
the various barriers in the body.”
Prausnitz worked five years
with electrical engineer Mark
Allen to develop a prototype de
vice, which looks like a nicotine
patch, of 400 silicon-based micro
scopic needles, each no wider
than a human hair.
The tiny, hollow needles are so
small, the researchers say, that
medication can be delivered
through the skin without reach
ing the nerve cells that register
pain. Microelectronics within
also could control the time and
dosage of the medicine delivered.
Tests of the device in delivering
insulin found it significantly re
duced blood sugar levels in dia
betic rats, Prausnitz said in a pres
entation this week at a meeting of
the American Chemical Society.
The race to develop alterna
tives comes amid concern about
the danger of used needles trans
mitting diseases to health care
workers and their patients. The
researchers also noted that young
sters can develop an aversion to
needles after receiving 12 to 19
childhood vaccinations.
Many of the devices discussed
at the conference are undergoing
human testing but are at least two
years away from coming to mar
ket.
Taking a page from the hy
pospray seen on television’s “Star
Trek” in the 1960s, Powderject
Pharmaceuticals of Fremont,
Calif., is testing a device that uses
pressurized helium to launch dry
powder medicines through the
skin.
Electronic inhalers could deliv
er dosages of tiny liquid particles
to the bloodstream by way of the
mouth and small airways.
Scientists also are turning to ge
netically engineered food. More
than 25 papers were expected to
look at the benefits of modifying
plants and foods to deliver drugs
or pack a more nutritional punch.
Cancer victims file suit
against tobacco giants
■ The industry responds
with allegations that the
• cancer was caused by
sources other than tobacco
By Catherine Wilson
The Associated Press
MIAMI—The tobacco industry
should be required to compensate
three cancer-stricken smokers for
lying to them and the American
public about their sickening and
addictive product, the smokers’
attorney told jurors today.
“They succeeded beyond their
wildest expectations,” attorney
Stanley Rosenblatt said of the na
tion’s five biggest cigarette mak
ers. “Let them now reap the conse
quences for the harm they have
caused good, decent people.”
Rosenblatt was expected to ask
the jury for a specific dollar figure
during the afternoon before tobac
co company lawyers began their
final arguments.
The six-member jury is being
asked to order compensatory
damages for the three ailing smok
ers who represent an estimated
500,000 other Florida smokers in
the first class-action case against
the tobacco industry to go to trial.
If jurors award compensatory
damages, they then will be asked
to set a dollar figure to punish the
industry. Company officials fear a
potentially ruinous $300 billion
punitive damage verdict.
The six-member jury decided
{ { Let them now reap
the consequences for the
harm they have caused...
Stanley Rosenblatt
attorney
last July that the industry fraudu
lently conspired to make a defec
tive product.
Doctors have testified that the
three smokers’ cancers were
caused by smoking.
The industry has offered evi
dence that bronchioalveolar can
cer — a form of lung cancer the
jury decided is not linked to
smoking — caused the cancers in
two of the smokers. It blamed in
dustrial wood dust as a possible
cause of throat cancer in the third.
The defendants are Philip Mor
ris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.,
Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Corp., Lorillard Tobacco Co.,
Liggett Group Inc. and the indus
try’s Council for Tobacco Research
and Tobacco Institute.
Pennsylvania to give money
to families of organ donors
■ The state will provide
the family members with
$300 to cover funeral,
incidental costs
By Hope Yen
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsyl
vania will move ahead with a
novel plan to offer $300 to the
families of organ donors, but the
money can only cover incidental
costs such as food, housing and
transportation, the state health
secretary said Wednesday.
A governor’s advisory commit
tee last fall recommended offer
ing the money for funeral costs
in hopes of encouraging organ
donations, because demand for
transplants is surging.
But amid concerns the plan
amounted to an illegal cash pay
ment for organs, Health Secretary
Robert Zimmerman said he was
modifying the program to cover
only incidental costs.
“I try to look at this in terms of
the end rather than the means,”
Zimmerman told members of the
advisory committee. “The end is
to promote and support and pro
vide benefits to people who
make difficult decisions.”
A 1984 federal law prohibits
payments or other considera
tions for organs and tissue. The
law exempts “reasonable pay
ments” for incidental costs asso
ciated with recovering and trans
porting the organ, but it does not
specifically mention funeral ex
penses.
Pennsylvania’s three-year pilot
program, the first of its kind in
the nation, could begin as early
as September after the advisory
committee works out details.
Many states, including New York
and Hawaii, have said they will
be watching closely to see if it is
worth pursuing on their own.
Some members of the Pennsyl
vania advisory committee said
the program’s attempts to com
ply with laws against organ buy
ing made it confusing. And other
skeptics wondered whether the
modest payment offer would in
crease donations.
“It’s probably legal but it does
n’t make a lot of sense,” said
George Annas, who writes on
health law for the New England
Journal of Medicine. “I can’t
imagine that throwing in trans
portation costs would make a
difference.”
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