SELECT
» Biotechnology facts and figures
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DISEASES
» Anemia (2005)
» Breast Cancer (2007)
» Cardiovascular Diseases (2007)
» Diabetes (2005)
» Growth Hormone Deficiency (2005)
» Haemophilia (2005)
» Hepatitis B (2005)
» Inflammatory Bowel Disease (2007)
» Lymphomas (2005)
» Multiple Sclerosis (2005)
» Rheumatoid Arthritis and other Inflammatory Rheumatism (2007)
Biotechnology for
Hepatitis B (2005)
<table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">The disease</span><br> <span class="rteColumn"> Hepatitis B is a viral disease transmitted by infected blood or by sexual intercourse. It can remain asymptomatic for a number of years but may cause irreversible liver damage leading to cirrhosis or liver cancer where the prognosis is generally very pessimistic. </span> <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=1" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">How many people are affected ?</span><br> Approximately 400 million people throughout the world are chronic carriers of the virus. The great majority are in Africa and South-East Asia. Western Europe, North America and Australia are zones of low infection. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=2" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">How many people die from the disease?</span><br> Nearly 2 million people die each year from hepatitis B. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=3" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Living with the disease</span><br> Clinically, the acute phase of the disease, preceded by a period of silent incubation of 1 to 3 months on average, is marked by anorexia, abdominal pain, nausea and jaundice, the latter lasting eventually for more than a month. However, in 90% of cases, HB is asymptomatic. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=4" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> <tr> <td><span class="diseaseSubTitle">Treatment <font color='#FFFFFF' size=-2>Témoignage patient de </font> </span></td> </tr> <tr> <td><span class="diseaseText"><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="10"></span></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5"> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#B9E3FF"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle2">Traditional approach</span><br> The first hepatitis B vaccines made available in the early 1980’s were prepared from the blood of HBV carriers. Because of the method of production, availability of these plasma vaccines was limited and was not sufficient to meet a high world demand. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=5" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> <td> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#B9E3FF"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle2">Biotech revolutions</span><br> The global nature of the epidemic required production of vaccines on a large scale, and vaccines produced by genetic engineering were put on the market in the mid 1980’s. The use of biotechnology enabled a considerable increase in production capacity while reducing costs. These vaccines contain fractions of virus produced “artificially,” without using any human material and can thus be produced more easily and more rapidly. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=6" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="227" height="1"></td> <td><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1"></td> <td><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="227" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#B9E3FF"> <td colspan="3"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle2">Drugs currently available</span><br> Recombinant proteins corresponding to a small piece of the virus are incorporated into medical preparations destined to stimulate the immune system. These vaccines can be monovalent (i.e. only provide vaccination against hepatitis B), or multivalent and vaccinate against a number of diseases at the same time (this is the case of a number of products for infants which also provide vaccination against poliomyelitis, whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus). <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=7" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3"><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="5"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Number of patients treated</span><br> In France, nearly 27 million people have been vaccinated, including 8 million children under 15. Vaccination against hepatitis B is recommended by the World Health Organisation <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=8" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Future</span><br> A number of companies are working on new vaccines which would offer protection to non-responders to the current vaccine (10 to 15% of patients) and on curative vaccines, which are effective even after infection. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=9" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Costs to society</span><br> In Europe, the cost of vaccination is €30 to 60€. The cost of vaccination in the developing world is significantly less. Annual world sales of monovalent vaccine in 2003 were in the region of $US 850 million. The growth of this market is currently negative due to the erosion of prices and the frequent use of multivalent vaccines for children in developed countries. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=15&bloc=10" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table>
