Germany rules against stem cell patents

Germany rules against stem cell patents

Should patents on the products of embryonic stem cell research be allowed? The European Court of Justice said no, but the question remained unanswered in Germany - until now.

The German constitution, called the Basic Law, guarantees the freedom of research. It also guarantees every human being the right to life. These two principles come into conflict when faced with the matter of human stem cell research. At least, they do if you take the view that life begins at conception rather than birth, because research is done using early-stage embryos, or more specifically the stem cells extracted from them. The embryos die during this process - though technology is being developed to prevent this.

The German parliament, the Bundestag, has introduced a law that places strict limits on this research. For instance, scientists can only use stem cell lines that were imported before May 1, 2007, a restriction meant to hinder the production of stem cells, and therefore the death of embryos, as a result of demand from Germany.

Oliver Brüstle took out a patent on a stem cell procedure

Patent rows

Some German scientists want to patent the results and developments they have invented through their stem cell research, and the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) pronounced a verdict on this legal question on Tuesday (27.11.2012). The court made clear that no patents may be issued on stem cell research if human embryos have been killed in the process. With that verdict, the court put itself in line with a ruling made by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2011.

In 1999, Bonn-based researcher Oliver Brüstle took out a patent from the German Patent Office on a procedure by which so-called "neural precursor cells" can be extracted from stem cells. It was mainly a financial decision.

"The patent does not constitute permission to produce or sell, and it doesn't constitute permission to destroy embryos either," Tade Matthias Spranger, a lawyer specializing in bio-medical regulation, told Deutsche Welle. "The patent only bestows a single right - namely the inventor's right to deny commercial use to a third party."

European court's fundamental ruling

The environmental organization Greenpeace successfully challenged Brüstle's patent at the federal patent court in 2004, on the grounds of violation of moral principles. But Brüstle appealed, which brought the case before the BGH.

At first, the BGH referred the case to the ECJ in Luxembourg, to clarify the European law's interpretation, since there is an EU directive on patent law for stem cell research. This directive states that no patents may be issued for inventions whose commercial use would violate moral principles. This is especially true of the use of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes. In an October 2011 ruling, the ECJ made clear that any product of research into human stem cells cannot be patented, if the embryos have to be killed for it.

The ruling will not impede scientific research, say some

No disadvantage to science

But in contrast to the question of patentability, there is no uniformity in Europe on the general legal stance on stem cell research. Britain, Sweden, and Belgium have very liberal rules - the UK even allows the production of human embryos for research purposes, under certain conditions. But the laws are much stricter in Germany, Norway, and Italy.

This patchwork of different legal situations has arisen because the legislative power on stem cell research lies in the hands of nation states. The EU has generally kept out of the debate up until now, and the latest German ruling will not change that.

Ingrid Schneider, political scientist specializing in the patenting of biotechnology at the University of Hamburg, does not believe that science has been weakened by this verdict. "It doesn't limit the freedom to research," she said. In fact, there could even be benefits for science: "The researchers don't have to make sure they are not violating any patents - they have the freedom to form their research."

DW.DE

Taking a walk in space

“Ready?”

I nod.

“Here we go…”

“Whoah!” is all I can manage as I find myself transported from a cluttered office in Houston to Earth orbit. Below, 350km (220 miles) away, the blue and white crescent of the Earth. Above me is the glistening white hull of the International Space Station (ISS), its vast solar arrays glinting in the sunshine.

Nasa hasn’t invented teleport. This is the agency’s Virtual Reality (VR) Laboratory at the Johnson Space Centre where dreams of space travel really can come true.

The lab complements underwater training and prepares astronauts for EVAs [Extra Vehicular Activity] – space walks – and work with robotic arms. Most of the room looks like a regular office with desks, computers and monitors but the rear section resembles an eccentric gym. Ropes hang from the ceiling, metal boxes are suspended on bungee cords and the room is criss-crossed by lines and pulleys.

“That’s where most of the virtual reality takes place,” says James Tinch, chief engineer for the Robotics Astronaut Office and manager of the lab. “The crewmembers put on the helmets and they get the sensation that they’re at the space station. The metal boxes with the ropes and pulleys tied to them are a mass handling device, so the crews can get a feel for what it takes to handle a large mass in space and how much trouble they might have just to move it around.”

I sit on the chair at the centre of the test area and Tinch gently lowers a harness over my shoulders. This holds the electronics for the virtual reality helmet, which he tightens around my head, allowing me to see an image of the VR environment. Next come the gloves. They look like cycling gloves and are fitted with sensors for grip and movement. I pull them onto my fingers. A box mounted to the ceiling above me will track their position as I move my hands around.

Then Tinch clicks the start button and I’m in orbit reaching out to the handrail just outside the airlock. I truly feel that I’m in space and yet to look at me, I’m still sitting on a chair at the centre of a room.

“Right now you’re next to the ISS airlock, where the crew members come out,” says Tinch, calmly. But I’m feeling anything but calm as I struggle to comprehend my new surroundings.

Try before you buy

If I look down I can see the rest of my spacesuit; straight ahead and there are my hands, now encased in astronaut gloves, tightly clasping the handrail. After giving me a few minutes to get acquainted with the view, Tinch instructs me to try to pull myself across one of the space station modules by releasing my left hand from the rail and gripping again further along. The idea is to pull myself around, hand over hand. But I let go too quickly and end up pushing myself away. I try to ‘swim’ back towards the structure, waving my hands wildly back and forth, but realise there’s nothing to push against. One of the major challenges of space walking – and a fuller understanding of Newton’s laws of motion – starts to become apparent.

“In space your hands pretty well do all your work for you,” says Tinch. “So your legs can kick and do anything but they’re not helping you.”

“One of the things you’ll find in space is that your wrist is one of the primary sources of how you move your body around, so astronauts do a lot of exercises with their hands and wrists to make sure they’re strong enough,” Tinch explains. “It’s a long day in those suits as you’re working against the suit and working against yourself, trying to get the work done.”

Quite how difficult space walking could prove to be was first brought home to Nasa in 1966, when astronaut Gene Cernan left the confines of the Gemini 9 spacecraft for the world’s third EVA. Later described by Cernan as “the spacewalk from hell,” he fought to control his tether and tumbled in a “slow motion ballet.” By the end, his heart rate had tripled, his visor had fogged up and he struggled to get back into the capsule.

Although I wasn’t in any danger (except perhaps from falling off my chair), forty-six years later, I experienced similar problems. If I moved my arm one way, my virtual body spun the other. The normal rules of movement that we are accustomed to on Earth do not apply in space. Imagine the simple act of tightening a bolt – without something to push against, as you turn the bolt you end up spinning in the opposite direction, achieving nothing. To overcome this problem, the ISS is fitted with handrails, footholds and often the crew will also use a robotic arm to assist them.

And they cannot just pop outside when the mood takes them. Lessons learnt over the years mean that every EVA is meticulously planned and choreographed. In fact, “space dance” might be a better way of describing what’s involved. Tinch explains that the VR lab enables astronauts to solve problems before they try it for real.

“If I have these four bolts I have to undo, what’s the best way for my body position to be? So you’re trying to do the choreography of the EVA and trying to figure out what works best for that workspace.” For those already on the ISS, the lab is developing VR helmets that can hook up to the station’s own laptops so astronauts can refresh their training on the job.

After 20 minutes in orbit, I’m exhausted. My back aches, my face is dripping with sweat and my wrists are sore. As he lifts off the helmet, Tinch assures me that astronauts trying this for the first time have similar problems.

If this were real, I would be wearing a bulky spacesuit, looking through a visor and would not have the luxury of stopping when I got a bit tired. The experience has given me a new appreciation of the training, skill and effort it takes to operate in the uncompromising space environment. A reality check for those of us who advocate manned missions to the Moon and Mars that we should never take this stuff for granted. Space walking may look like fun but, once you get over the amazing view, it is hard. Really hard.

In future columns Richard will be reporting from inside the space station control room and the full-sized mock-up of the ISS at Houston to discover what it takes to keep the astronauts alive.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121123-taking-a-walk-in-space

Do flu vaccines give you flu?

In parts of the world where winter is approaching, this also heralds the start of the flu season. Over the last few weeks many people will have made a decision about whether or not to receive the latest vaccination against flu. Every year a new vaccine is produced, aimed at combating the latest strains of the virus. Recommendations vary from country to country, though many places target pregnant women and the elderly, as they are particularly at risk if they contract flu.

But every year doctors and practitioners encounter similar resistance from many people. How often have you heard people say that they’re convinced the flu jab gave them flu, or that the one year they were vaccinated they had the worst flu they’d ever had? They swear they’ll not be making the same mistake again. If you fall down with the flu after being vaccinated, you can see why you would be reluctant to receive it again, but is there any evidence that this is down to the vaccine itself?

Part of some people’s unease comes down to the nature of the vaccine. There are two types: an injection that contains an inactivated form of the virus; and a nasal spray that is becoming more common in places like the United States, which contains a live form of the virus, but in a much weakened form. Side-effects from the nasal spray can include a runny nose or sore throat. But the injection is not a live vaccine like, say, the rubella jab, where you are given a tiny amount of the infection to induce your immune system to create antibodies against it. The viruses involved in the flu vaccine are alive, but they are inactivated during production and batches of vaccine are tested to ensure that it is no longer virulent.

To study whether there are any side-effects in the days following a vaccination, US researchers vaccinated two thousand people, but only half were given the real vaccine, while the other half were injected with harmless salt water. There was just one side-effect reported more frequently by those who had received the genuine vaccine, and this wassoreness in the arm in which the injection had been given. Health authorities warn that occasionally people feel slightly feverish or achey afterward. This is a rare side-effect, but it still doesn’t mean that people have flu.

Prediction test
So what’s the explanation for the people who find they get flu within days of vaccination? It takes two weeks for immunity against the virus to develop, so these people could have contracted flu just before or after they had the vaccination. Research such as the US study shows that no more people develop flu symptoms than those who had salt-water injections. It is simply that a proportion of people vaccinated were already about to get flu. 

But what about the people who get flu during the winter, despite having received a vaccination? Are they somehow more susceptible to the illness, as many people think? The answer is that this is less about susceptibility and more about how the vaccines are created.

Each year the World Health Organisation selects the three viruses they believe will be most likely to be circulating the upcoming winter season in the northern or southern hemisphere. The selection for the northern hemisphere is announced in February, and vaccine production begins in March, ready for people to be immunised in the autumn. (Here’s the WHO’s latest recommendations for vaccines in the northern and southernhemisphere.) They are effectively making an informed prediction on the strains, but there is always the possibility that the flu virus you catch won’t be one of these three. And this is why it is never claimed that the vaccines are 100 % effective.

All of which begs the obvious question – how effective are they? Different studies are hard to compare because they measure different outcomes. Some look at rates of hospitalisation, others at death rates or at the number of laboratory-confirmed flu infections. But to take an example, a large study from 2007 published in the highly regarded journal, The New England Journal of Medicine found the vaccine protected seven out of ten people. Protection also varies from year to year, depending on the accuracy of the WHO’s predictions. Preliminary data from the US Centers for Disease Control estimate that the 2010/2011 flu vaccine was approximately 60% effective.

Persistent fear

That said, some people respond to the vaccine better than others, and this can depend on age. Protection is lower for those over 65, but the consequences of contracting flu can be more severe, which is why older people are targeted for vaccination. If people get flu despite having the vaccine, it’s not that vaccine gave them flu that winter, but that it didn’t protect them against it. And if you do get flu despite having had the vaccine, the chances are it would have been more severe without it.

Then there is another possibility, which is that you have a cold. And as horrible as it might feel, this is not the same as flu. There is a tendency to describe a bad cold as flu in order to convey to people quite how ill you are. I’ve done it myself. But the first time I had real flu I realised the difference. When I was recovering I made the mistake of going to rent a DVD from a shop five minutes walk away. The whole trip proved so exhausting that I had to sit on a bench for an hour to muster the energy to get back home. Colds and flu can both can involve sneezing, coughing and aching muscles, but flu usually comes on much more quickly, often starting with a sudden fever.

Yet despite the evidence available, many people remain convinced that vaccines can cause flu. In a study conducted by health psychologist Lynne Myers last year – not on the seasonal flu vaccine, but on the swine flu vaccine – only 53% of people surveyed correctly answered that the vaccine can’t cause swine flu. The evidence may be in favour of the vaccines, but the problem is that when we experience symptoms ourselves we make assumptions based on our own ideas about causality. It’s very hard not to connect events when the timing seems to fit. But that doesn’t always mean we’re right.

If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us onTwitter.

You can hear more Medical Myths on Health Check on the BBC World Service.

DisclaimerAll content within this column is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. The BBC is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of this site. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121126-do-flu-vaccines-give-you-flu

Skylon spaceplane engine concept achieves key milestone

By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News

Skylon would do the job of a big rocket but operate like an airliner from a conventional runway

Continue reading the main story

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The UK company developing an engine for a new type of spaceplane says it has successfully demonstrated the power unit's enabling technology.

Reaction Engines Ltd (REL) of Culham, Oxfordshire, ran a series of tests on key elements of its Sabre propulsion system under the independent eye of the European Space Agency (Esa).

Esa's experts have confirmed that all the demonstration objectives were met.

REL claims the major technical obstacle to its ideas has now been removed.

"This is a big moment; it really is quite a big step forward in propulsion," said Alan Bond, the driving force behind the Sabre engine concept.

The company must now raise the £250m needed to complete the next phase of development.

This would essentially take the project to the final designs that could be handed to a manufacturer.

Although the British government has put significant sums into REL's technology in the past, the company's preference is to pursue city finance.

"The project to date has been more than 90% privately funded, and we intend to continue with that type of structure," explained Tim Hayter, the CEO of Reaction Engines Ltd.

"Yes, we would encourage government money but we're not reliant on it and we're certainly not depending on it.

"What is more important to us is government endorsement. That gives everyone the confidence that the UK is behind this project."

REL's idea is for an 84m-long vehicle called Skylon that would do the job of a big rocket but operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.

The vehicle would burn a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen but in the low atmosphere the oxygen would be taken from the air, in the same way that a jet engine breathes air.

The pre-cooler demonstration was a critical step in proving the Skylon concept

Only once it had achieved very high speeds would Skylon switch to full rocket mode, burning onboard fuel supplies.

Taking its oxygen from the air in the initial flight phase would mean Skylon could fly lighter from the outset with a higher thrust-to-weight ratio, enabling it to make a single leap to orbit, rather than using and dumping propellant stages on the ascent - as is the case with current expendable rockets.

If such a vehicle could be made to work, its reusability should transform the costs of accessing space.

But its success depends on the Sabre engine's ability to manage the very hot air entering its intakes at high speed.

These gases have to be cooled prior to being compressed and burnt with the onboard hydrogen.

REL's solution is a module containing arrays of extremely fine piping that can extract the heat and plunge the inrushing air to minus 140C in just 1/100th of a second.

Ordinarily, the moisture in the air would be expected to freeze out rapidly, covering the piping in a blanket of frost and dislocating their operation.

But the company's engineers have also devised a means to control the frosting, permitting the Sabre engine to run in jet mode for as long as is needed before making the transition to full rocket mode to take the Skylon spaceplane into orbit.

It is the innovative helium cooling loop with its pre-cooler heat-exchanger that REL has been validating on an experimental rig.

"We completed the programme by getting down to -150C, running for 10 minutes," said Mr Bond. "We've demonstrated that the pre-cooler is behaving absolutely as predicted."

A concept drawing of the Sabre engine with a series of pre-cooler modules

The UK Space Agency asked Esa's propulsion division to audit the tests, and the Paris-based organisation has declared its satisfaction with the outcome of the experimental programme.

"One of the major obstacles to developing air-breathing engines for launch vehicles is the development of the lightweight high-performance heat exchangers," it said in a statement.

"With this now successfully demonstrated by REL, there are currently no technical reasons why the Sabre engine programme cannot move forward into the next stage of development."

The next phase is a three-and-a-half-year project. It would see a smaller version of Sabre being built on a test rig. The demonstrator would not have the exact same configuration as the eventual engine but it would allow REL to prove Sabre's performance across its air-breathing and rocket modes.

"Its parts will be spread out slightly; there's no need for us to package it as we would a real engine," said Mr Bond.

"Also, we will want the ease of access to exchange parts, so it will look a little bit like an anatomy exhibition."

The UK government is currently assessing what shape any involvement it should have in the next phase of Skylon/Sabre.

In addition, Esa is keen to do some study work with REL. Although it is currently working on new versions of its Ariane rocket - a classic expendable vehicle - the agency also wants keep an eye on future launcher technologies.

Sabre engine: How the test campaign was conducted

Continue reading the main story

Groundbreaking pre-cooler

• 1. Pre-cooler

  During flight air enters the pre-cooler. In 1/100th of a second a network of fine piping inside the pre-cooler drops the air's temperature by well over 100C. Very cold helium in the piping makes this possible.

• 2. Jet engine

  Oxygen chilled in the pre-cooler by the helium is compressed and used to fuel the aircraft. In the test run, a jet engine is used to draw air into the pre-cooler, so the technology can be demonstrated.

• 3. The silencer

  The helium must be kept chilled. So, it is pumped through a nitrogen boiler. For the test, water is used to dampen the noise from the exhaust gases. Clouds of steam are produced as the water is vapourised.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter:@BBCAmos

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20510112

Rewards set to halve for digital money miners

Bitcoin "miners" generate the coins by completing work on a computer

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People trying to profit via the bitcoin electronic currency will soon have to work harder to mint the digital coins.

Safeguards built into the bitcoin software are about to be triggered as the number of bitcoins in circulation hits a key milestone.

This means bitcoin "miners" will have to work twice as hard to be rewarded with the same number of coins.

The change comes as competition to create the coins gets more intense with the release of custom mining chips.

Since the creation of the bitcoin network in early 2009, bitcoins have grown to become a very widely used digital currency. An increasing number of online shops and businesses accept bitcoins as payments and currently each bitcoin is worth about £8.

As a digital currency, bitcoins are not issued by a central bank or national mint. Instead they are created by the system's network when a specific amount of computer work, known as a "block" has been completed. Fifty bitcoins are released when that block is done and the work, which involves solving a hard mathematical problem, is completed.

The protocol that defines this block-to-coin ratio reduces the reward given for finding each block every time 210,000 blocks have been found. According to statistics gathered about the bitcoin network, the 210,000 figure looks set to be passed on 28 November. Then, instead of getting 50 bitcoins per block, miners will get only 25.

"The main reason to do this is to control inflation," said Vitalik Buterin, a journalist at Bitcoin Magazine. Controlling the rate at which coins were created, he said, meant there would never be a surge or shortfall in the number of bitcoins in circulation, either one of which could rapidly change the value of each coin.

It addition, he said, it was a hedge against technological innovation. In the early days of bitcoins, many people used desktop computers to do the hard sums. Then they started to use banks of graphics cards that could do the maths very quickly to speed up the rate at which blocks of work were completed.

Mr Buterin said some miners were now using even more specialised hardware to do the mathematical work and firms were starting to produce custom-made chips that stepped up the pace of work even more.

However, he said, the creators of bitcoins had foreseen these changes and built in controls to keep the numbers of blocks completed relatively constant.

"The protocol always calibrates difficulty to make up for increased mining power," he told the BBC, "so the speed at which people are finding blocks isn't going to go up by much no matter what."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20510447

Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom lead Spirit field

Both Moonrise Kingdom (left) and Silver Linings Playbook are nominated for best picture, director and screenplay

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Quirky comedies Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom will lead the field at next year's Spirit Awards, having received five nominations each.

Both films are competing for the best picture and best director prizes at the awards, which honour independent films.

Also up for best picture are father-daughter tale Beasts of the Southern Wild, black comedy Bernie and Keep the Lights On, a drama about a gay romance.

The winners will be announced on 23 February, one day before the Oscars.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence have both been nominated for their lead roles in Silver Linings Playbook.

The pair play a manic depressive and a young widow who strike up an unusual romance in David O Russell's hotly tipped awards contender.

The film is also nominated for best screenplay, along with Moonrise Kingdom.

Wes Anderson's first-love story between a precocious boy and girl also received a best supporting actor nod for Bruce Willis and another nomination for its cinematography.

'Strong group'

Matthew McConaughey receives two nominations: for best actor in crime thriller Killer Joe, and best supporting actor in male stripper comedy Magic Mike.

John Hawkes and Helen Hunt are recognised for their performances as a disabled man and his sex surrogate in The Sessions.

Other acting nominees include Jack Black for Bernie, Michael Pena for End of Watch, Sam Rockwell for Seven Psychopaths and Mary Elizabeth Winstead for Smashed.

There is also a best actress nomination for child star Quvenzhane Wallis for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won the top prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

"The nominations this year represent an astonishingly strong group of artists both in front of and behind the camera," said Josh Welsh, co-president of awards organisers Film Independent.

Spirit nominations often overlap with Oscar contenders. The Artist won four awards last year, then went on to win five Oscars the following day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20523244

Concern at outsourced clinical trials in developing world

By Jane DreaperHealth correspondent, BBC News

Few drug companies have robust measures to ensure outsourced clinical trials in developing countries are safe and ethical, an independent report says.

Most provided no evidence of exerting real influence over the way the trials were conducted by contractors, the latest Access to Medicine Index said.

However, the report also praised firms for stepping up their efforts to provide affordable medicines.

Published every two years, it ranks the world's 20 biggest drug companies.

GlaxoSmithKline remains at the top of the index, followed closely by Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi. AstraZeneca slipped down the rankings most significantly.

This is the third report by the Netherlands-based index, which is funded by organisations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK's Department for International Development.

It is estimated that one billion people around the world are unable to afford the medicines they need.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Anything putting patients at risk is an unacceptable practice and a significant concern.”

David SampsonAccess to Medicine Index

The index report says that the drive to improve access "has landed in more boardrooms", with companies discounting products by as much as 50-60% - although sometimes it was difficult to ascertain the true baseline price.

But it urges all the firms to be more transparent about their lobbying practices.

Patients at risk

One of the authors, David Sampson, said: "Even though we raised the bar on our measures this year, and the economic climate has been difficult in the last few years, all of the companies have improved their approach and initiatives on access.

"Boards are taking control of this issue - and what they care about gets managed, measured and motivated in a way that flows through the organisation.

"There's an increasing trend to outsource clinical trials - but as is always the case with outsourcing, the relationship between the two parties needs to be extremely tightly defined and managed carefully.

"While most companies talk about codes of conduct and audit, only four companies disclosed details of disciplinary action that had taken place when conduct had fallen short.

"Regulatory regimes in developing countries are more variable - and anything putting patients at risk is an unacceptable practice and a significant concern."

The index also examined what pharmaceutical products were being developed. Drugs to tackle the big killer diseases such as respiratory and diarrhoeal infections, Aids and malaria continued to be the primary focus - but more attention was being paid to some of the neglected tropical diseases.

More companies were found to be running "tiered pricing" schemes, in which medicines are cheaper for targeted countries or populations. The report authors said these should be expanded.

One example was the varying prices charged by Bayer in 11 sub-Saharan African countries, to help increase access to its contraceptive pill.

GlaxoSmithKline was praised for making its entire vaccine portfolio available to developing countries at an equitable price, though the index said it should reveal more about its marketing and promotional programmes.

AstraZeneca dropped from seventh to 16th place in the index "largely due to the fact that it has not made many advances in its access to medicine approach" since the previous report.

The company said the latest report was only one of several measures that provide an insight into medicine access and did not take full account of AstraZeneca's significant activities that promote better access to healthcare.

"Our core therapeutic focus is in chronic illnesses, which are responsible for an increasingly larger share of the disease burden in developing countries but are only partially considered by the Index," said a spokeswoman.

GSK chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said: "Enabling greater access to medicines is firmly at the heart of our business."

He said GSK's ranking was recognition of this, but added: "We recognise there is more we can do, and we will continue to challenge ourselves to adopt and deliver new ideas and approaches to improve lives around the world."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20468396