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Palliative Care Research To Benefit From $1.5 Million Award
The American Cancer Society and the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) are awarding $1.5 million in research grants to researchers at eleven institutions for studies aimed at reducing suffering for seriously ill patients and their family caregivers. The studies will be conducted over the next two years. The NPCRC, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, has directed over $5 million towards supporting 38 palliative care research projects since starting this initiative three years ago.

Opinions: Maternal Mortality; Health System Strengthening
Columnist Sees "Dawn Of A Global Movement Against Maternal Mortality"
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A Combination Of Common Genetic Variations Can Lead To Schizophrenia
A multi-national group of investigators, including a scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has discovered that nearly a third of the genetic basis of schizophrenia may be attributed to the cumulative actions of thousands of common genetic variants. The effects of each of these genetic changes, innocuous on its own, add up to a significant risk for developing both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
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Global Vaccine Initiative Wins Support From Italian, Canadian, Russian Finance Ministers

Finance ministers from Italy, Canada and Russia Friday voiced their support for a program aimed at lowering the prices of vaccines for developing countries, the AFP/Google.com reports. "The Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) programme was first outlined in 2007 and will encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in research for vaccines against deadly diseases by promising to buy the vaccines at a fixed price," the AFP/Google.com writes (AFP/Google.com, 6/12). The program - which is funded by Italy, the U.K., Canada, Russia, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - will start by focusing on a vaccine for pneumococcal disease (Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, 6/12). The finance ministers at a G8 meeting in Italy on Friday signed off on the new project, which is estimated to make the current pneumococcal vaccine available for $3.50 in developing countries compared to $70 in developed countries (AFP/Google.com, 6/12). "Italy is proud to support the AMC initiative: immunisation is an investment in human capital that fosters long-term economic development," Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti said in a written statement (AFP/Google.com, 6/12). "If this pilot project works out, well, then, this will start out I think a wave of financing vaccines in the poorest countries in the world," Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said (Akin, Canwest News Service/The Gazette, 6/14). Some groups are not convinced AMC will lead vaccine prices for developing countries to drop, including Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) which said developing world vaccine producers should be involved in the process, according to AFP/Google.com. "It"s only if developing country manufacturers enter the market that we can expect prices to come down to more affordable levels in the future," Laurent Gadot, a health economist at MSF, said in a statement (AFP/Google.com, 6/12). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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