In The News

Stratfor: War on Drugs – A Conflict as Old as Humanity

Ian Morris August 17, 2018
Drug addiction as a security issue threatens workplaces, communities and individual health. Archeologists have found evidence of societies throughout history embracing and battling certain drugs, explains Ian Morris. Ancient Peruvians used cacti for mescaline and Ice Age cave painters may have used hallucinogens. “When Greek traders started showing up in the West Mediterranean, only one thing...

Caixin: US Approval Offers Shot in the Arm to China’s Traditional Medicine

Coco Feng February 2, 2018
Traditional medicines, once customized for each patient, are increasingly standardized and manufactured in large modern factories, for delivery around the globe. To expand markets, Chinese manufacturers are conducting clinical trials and putting their products under the review of the US Food and Drug Administration, considered among the world’s toughest regulators for drugs. “Although China...

Project Syndicate: IP for the 21st Century Economy

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev October 17, 2017
Intellectual property laws can be an obstacle when emerging economies are enduring a health crisis. Writing for Project Syndicate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev describe South Africa’s battle against the global pharmaceutical industry as HIV/AIDS swept through the continent. Today South Africa’s leaders are working to develop intellectual property policies to expand access to...

Science: Cocaine Trafficking Is Destroying Central America’s Forests

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega July 12, 2017
Researchers at US universities are positing that that cocaine trafficking accounted for more than 900,000 acres of deforestation in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua from 2001 to 2013. The drug trade directs 90 percent of cocaine in the United States through Central America, and “traffickers in the region had to figure out a way to funnel their money into the legal economy,” notes Emiliano...

UN Pledges to Fight Antibiotic Resistance in Historic Agreement

Michaeleen Doucleff September 23, 2016
Overuse of antibiotics and outright abuse have contributed to some bacteria adapting resistance to common drugs. The UN General Assembly is tackling the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs as a priority: “The U.N.'s declaration requires countries to come up with a two-year a plan to protect the potency of antibiotics,” reports Michaeleen Doucleff for NPR. Common infections like...

“Almost Too late”: Fears of Global Superbug Crisis in Wake of Antibiotic Misuse

January 7, 2016
Overuse of antibiotics, particularly in the agriculture industry, and a lack of new drugs to combat evolving superbugs could contribute to a global health crisis. An essay in the Guardian reports that “a gene was discovered which makes infectious bacteria resistant to the last line of antibiotic defence, colistin (polymyxins). The resistance to the colistin antibiotic is considered to be a ‘major...

Fears Grow Over Increased Antibiotic Resistance

October 16, 2015
Many antibiotics kill bacteria indiscriminately, including those causing disease and those that aid with digestion or immunity. Overuse of the drugs in health care and farm animals has increased antibiotic resistance and could contribute to thousands of deaths each year among patients having colorectal surgery, chemotherapy or hip replacements. Researchers have found that “as many as half of all...