Death threat to CM, Selvaraj: One arrested
KANNUR: The police Thursday arrested one person for threatening Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and R Selvarj, through a SMS message. The person identified as Anoop of Kannur was arrested from the district by a team led by sub inspector of Thiruvananthapuram Museum police station.
The threat to the chief minister came via an SMS message sent to the rail alert service of the Railway police last Thursday. The message held out a threat to the lives of the chief minister and Selvaraj and also mentioned a bomb blast. The railway police immediately alerted the Thampanoor police and they in turn informed the city police commissioner.
After registering a case, the Museum police handed the information over to Kasargod SP.
A police enquiry showed the SMS came from the SIM of a native of Cheruvathur in Kasargod identified as Ajeesh. When contacted, the man said he had lost the SIM card a few months ago.
The police later found out that the threat was made by Anoop.

 Death threat to CM, Selvaraj: One arrested
KANNUR: The police Thursday arrested one person for threatening Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and R Selvarj, through a SMS message. The person identified as Anoop of Kannur was arrested from the district by a team led by sub inspector of Thiruvananthapuram Museum police station.
The threat to the chief minister came via an SMS message sent to the rail alert service of the Railway police last Thursday. The message held out a threat to the lives of the chief minister and Selvaraj and also mentioned a bomb blast. The railway police immediately alerted the Thampanoor police and they in turn informed the city police commissioner.
After registering a case, the Museum police handed the information over to Kasargod SP.
A police enquiry showed the SMS came from the SIM of a native of Cheruvathur in Kasargod identified as Ajeesh. When contacted, the man said he had lost the SIM card a few months ago.
The police later found out that the threat was made by Anoop.

  Three more nabbed in TP murder case
KOZHIKODE: The Special Investigation Team probing the RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan murder today formally arrested three more persons in the case. Police said Valsan, Lalu and Anil were taken into custody from Mumbai for providing shelter to one of the prime suspects, T K Rejish at various places.
Meanwhile, the Vatakara Magistrate Court today extended the remand of CPI (M) Onchiyem Area Committee Secretary C H Ashokan and member K K Krishnan, arrested in connection with the case, till June 21.

  Three more nabbed in TP murder case
KOZHIKODE: The Special Investigation Team probing the RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan murder today formally arrested three more persons in the case. Police said Valsan, Lalu and Anil were taken into custody from Mumbai for providing shelter to one of the prime suspects, T K Rejish at various places.
Meanwhile, the Vatakara Magistrate Court today extended the remand of CPI (M) Onchiyem Area Committee Secretary C H Ashokan and member K K Krishnan, arrested in connection with the case, till June 21.

Hajj quota: 1031 seats increased

Thiruvananthapuram: Minister PK Kunhalikutty said the central government has increased the hajj quota for Keralites after several requests to union government and the central hajj committee.
Kerala will get 1031 seats more. The state quota was 6487 seats and this year as many as 49,420 people applied for Hajj.
Kunhalikutty stated that though applicants in reserve quota too are not able to travel, he sought for an increase.
Kerala's stand is that instead of allotting hajj seats on the basis of population, it should be allotted on the basis of number of applicants from each state. With this the total number of seats would be 7,518. 

Hajj quota: 1031 seats increased

Thiruvananthapuram: Minister PK Kunhalikutty said the central government has increased the hajj quota for Keralites after several requests to union government and the central hajj committee.
Kerala will get 1031 seats more. The state quota was 6487 seats and this year as many as 49,420 people applied for Hajj.
Kunhalikutty stated that though applicants in reserve quota too are not able to travel, he sought for an increase.
Kerala's stand is that instead of allotting hajj seats on the basis of population, it should be allotted on the basis of number of applicants from each state. With this the total number of seats would be 7,518. 

Couple held for killing three; Daughter discloses it to channel 

Chennai: Following the revelations made by a 17-year-old girl that her father had killed three persons four years back, police on Wednesday held the couple. 
Bhargavi, daughter of Murugan from Nallapalayam, in a television programme made the shocking revelation of the three murders. Bharagavi on May 28 in a TV programme `Solluvathellam Unmai' said her father had killed a woman, her husband and woman's father for money and gold.
According to Bhargavi, she fell in love with a youth named Satheesh while studying for plus two and wanted to marry him. But Murugan, who was against their relation, threatened to kill her like he had killed the three in afamily four years back and dumped their body in the backyard of their house

Couple held for killing three; Daughter discloses it to channel 

Chennai: Following the revelations made by a 17-year-old girl that her father had killed three persons four years back, police on Wednesday held the couple. 
Bhargavi, daughter of Murugan from Nallapalayam, in a television programme made the shocking revelation of the three murders. Bharagavi on May 28 in a TV programme `Solluvathellam Unmai' said her father had killed a woman, her husband and woman's father for money and gold.
According to Bhargavi, she fell in love with a youth named Satheesh while studying for plus two and wanted to marry him. But Murugan, who was against their relation, threatened to kill her like he had killed the three in afamily four years back and dumped their body in the backyard of their house

Bank manager dies as bus runs over him

Kozhikode: A bank manager died on Wednesday when a KSRTC bus ran over him after his scooter hit a stationary van. The deceased is OK Vahab, 56, Mavoor road SBT manager from Alappuzha. He is son of late Ummerkutty and Shamsumma.
The accident occurred at Pavamani road in front of Coronation Theater. Vahab was riding his scooter and it hit a van parked on the roadside. Vahad fell on the road and was run over by a KSRTC. Though passengers and onlookers rushed him to a hospital, his life could not be saved and he succumbed to his injuries by 8.30 pm.
Usaiba is wife and Shaniya and Sherin are daughters.

Bank manager dies as bus runs over him

Kozhikode: A bank manager died on Wednesday when a KSRTC bus ran over him after his scooter hit a stationary van. The deceased is OK Vahab, 56, Mavoor road SBT manager from Alappuzha. He is son of late Ummerkutty and Shamsumma.
The accident occurred at Pavamani road in front of Coronation Theater. Vahab was riding his scooter and it hit a van parked on the roadside. Vahad fell on the road and was run over by a KSRTC. Though passengers and onlookers rushed him to a hospital, his life could not be saved and he succumbed to his injuries by 8.30 pm.
Usaiba is wife and Shaniya and Sherin are daughters.

Babies of smoking mums weigh less at birth

Babies born to mothers who smoke weigh and measure less, a new study has revealed.

The new study lead by the University of Zaragoza evaluates the differences in bodycomposition and proportional distribution of body mass between babies born to mothers who have and have not smoked during pregnancy.

It reveals that children of women who did not smoke during pregnancy weigh and measure more.

Their corporal dimensions are also significantly higher compared to the children of mothers who did smoke during pregnancy. But, this is not the same as body weight index (the relationship between height and cubic weight).

In fact, the results highlight that mothers who smoke during pregnancy give birth to babies that are between 180 and 230 grams thinner than the offsprings of mothers who do not smoke. In other words, this constitutes an average of 216 grams.

Furthermore, subcutaneous skinfolds, which show the amount of fat, are lower in children born of mothers who smoked. In this case however, differences were not as great as with body size.

On the contrary, the authors of the study did not find any correlation between anthropometric measurements and the number of cigarettes smoked per day during pregnancy.

"Given the scarce bibliography on the subject, we had to assess the impact of tobacco on the body composition of babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy," Gerardo Rodriguez, lead author of the study, said.

For this purpose, the experts analysed that the newly born full term babies with a gestational age of at least 37 weeks of 1216 Caucasian mothers (22.1 percent of whom smoked an average of almost eight cigarettes per day) in the University Clinical Hospital of Lozano Blesa in Zaragoza.

The children of those mothers who had admitted to consuming alcohol or taking illegal drugs during pregnancy were excluded from the study.

"Tobacco consumption during pregnancy can cause a generalised reduction in the majority of parameters as a result of a decrease in foetal growth. Newly born babies to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are smaller and have less subcutaneous fat compartments," Rodriguez added.

The study has been published in the Early Human Development journal.

Babies of smoking mums weigh less at birth

Babies born to mothers who smoke weigh and measure less, a new study has revealed.

The new study lead by the University of Zaragoza evaluates the differences in bodycomposition and proportional distribution of body mass between babies born to mothers who have and have not smoked during pregnancy.

It reveals that children of women who did not smoke during pregnancy weigh and measure more.

Their corporal dimensions are also significantly higher compared to the children of mothers who did smoke during pregnancy. But, this is not the same as body weight index (the relationship between height and cubic weight).

In fact, the results highlight that mothers who smoke during pregnancy give birth to babies that are between 180 and 230 grams thinner than the offsprings of mothers who do not smoke. In other words, this constitutes an average of 216 grams.

Furthermore, subcutaneous skinfolds, which show the amount of fat, are lower in children born of mothers who smoked. In this case however, differences were not as great as with body size.

On the contrary, the authors of the study did not find any correlation between anthropometric measurements and the number of cigarettes smoked per day during pregnancy.

"Given the scarce bibliography on the subject, we had to assess the impact of tobacco on the body composition of babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy," Gerardo Rodriguez, lead author of the study, said.

For this purpose, the experts analysed that the newly born full term babies with a gestational age of at least 37 weeks of 1216 Caucasian mothers (22.1 percent of whom smoked an average of almost eight cigarettes per day) in the University Clinical Hospital of Lozano Blesa in Zaragoza.

The children of those mothers who had admitted to consuming alcohol or taking illegal drugs during pregnancy were excluded from the study.

"Tobacco consumption during pregnancy can cause a generalised reduction in the majority of parameters as a result of a decrease in foetal growth. Newly born babies to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are smaller and have less subcutaneous fat compartments," Rodriguez added.

The study has been published in the Early Human Development journal.

Dengue vaccine in sight, after 70 years

Reuters | 

LONDON: One of the grimmest legacies of the war in the Pacific is still being fought 70 years on, but a victory over dengue, the intensely painful "breakbone fever" which that conflict helped spread around the world, may be in sight. 
The US Army, which like its Japanese enemy lost thousands of men to the mosquito-borne disease in the 1940s, has piled resources into defeating the tropical killer. But it may be about to see the battle to develop the first vaccine won not in the United States but by French drug company Sanofi. 
The Paris-based firm hopes for positive results in September from a key trial among children in Thailand that would set it on course to market a shot in 2015 which would prevent an estimated 100 million cases of dengue infection each year. Of 20,000 annual deaths, many are of children.
For Sanofi, which has invested 350 million euros ($440 million) in a new French factory to make the three-dose vaccine, it could mean a billion euros in yearly sales as half the world is exposed to the disease, notably in fast-expanding tropical cities from Rio and Mexico to Manila and Mumbai. But like British rival GlaxoSmithKline, whose new malaria shot has shown promise against another mosquito-carried scourge, Sanofi is also preparing for pressure to make its drug accessible to billions too poor to pay the likely market price. 

It has been long wait. Identified in local outbreaks in the Americas, Africa and Asia since the 18th century - and noted as a serious military hindrance by U.S. generals in their 1898 war against Spain in Cuba and the Philippines - dengue was spread to global pandemic proportions in part due to the massive movements of armies through the Pacific theatre in World War Two. 
That conflict, in which some 90,000 American troops were put in hospital by dengue, prompted the first efforts to develop a vaccine, as U.S. and Japanese scientists isolated the virus spread by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. But the disease, which can cause intense joint and muscle pain, has gone on sapping the health of troops, from Vietnam to Somalia and Haiti, and made lives miserable for millions of civilians. 

In the past 50 years there has been a thirty-fold jump in cases. The World Health Organisation officially puts infections at 50 to 100 million a year, though many experts think this assessment from the 1990s badly under-estimates the disease. Most patients survive but it is estimated to kill about 20,000 every year, many of these children less able to fight it off. 

TALE OF TWO VACCINES The US Army's quest for a vaccine had most recently been pursued in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline. But Sanofi now seems closest to offering a viable treatment. And, unlike GSK's malaria injection designed for African babies, it promises to be the commercial blockbuster the French firm needs to refresh a portfolio weakened by expiring patents. 
Its estimate of over 1 billion euros in annual sales - Sanofi's 2011 turnover was 33.4 billion euros - assumes that it is added to routine immunization schedules in Latin America and Asia and is also adopted by travelers from farther afield and by military medics in the United States and Europe. 
Meeting that sales potential, while getting the vaccine to hundreds of millions who need it across the tropics, will require a careful balancing act on pricing and supply of a product that has yet to be given a commercial brand name. 

Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the new vaccine is a potential breakthrough but warned its roll-out may not be straightforward. First up, the vaccine needs to be given in three installments over the course of a year in order to counter the threat from four different types of dengue virus, none of which confers immunity for the others. 

"There are going to be some challenges," says Levine. "There's really good economic potential from this vaccine but I think it may take a ramp-up of three to five years." 
SANOFI'S BET In an ideal world, healthcare experts would like a single-dose or, at most, a two-dose vaccine for mass immunization. 
A simpler regimen would also be better for travelers, although Pascal Barollier of Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi's vaccine arm, says many users will be people making regular trips to see families in Latin America or Asia with time to plan ahead. The military, too, often has lead time for troop movements. 
In any case, Sanofi is putting its money where its mouth is by spending 350 million euros on a new dengue vaccine factory near Lyon, which is already in test production. 
It is a substantial gamble, since Sanofi will only learn whether the vaccine really works when it analyses data from a first study of its efficacy on 4,000 Thai children. 
Results from that clinical study, in what is known as the Phase IIb of the international standard three-stage process of assessment, are expected in the third quarter - most likely September. They will also be presented for scientific scrutiny at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta in November. 
If the data is good, Sanofi will file for market approval in countries where dengue is endemic likeAustralia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Mexico in 2013, suggesting a regulatory green light in 2014 and commercial launch in early 2015. 
Submissions in other countries and for the travelers market would follow in 2014 and 2015. 

LOOKING GOOD Early tests have shown a balanced immune response against all four dengue types and Duane Gubler of the Duke-N.U.S. Graduate Medical School, who has researched dengue for four decades, is optimistic. 

"Everything they've done so far looks very good," he says. "I think it will be a much better vaccine than malaria." 

He expects Sanofi's vaccine will show an efficacy rate of at least 75 to 80 percent, well above the 50 percent or so seen with GSK's malaria shot, which faces the added technical problem of fighting a complex parasite rather than a virus. 

The efficacy rate refers to the reduction in the prevalence of subsequent infection among those vaccinated. 

Despite both being transmitted by mosquitoes, dengue and malaria are notably different enemies. 

Malaria, which is carried by a different mosquito, typically attacks rural populations living near swamps. Dengue, by contrast, has adapted to life in the city and is one of the winners of mankind's accelerating rush to urbanize. 

The number of people living in urban areas is projected to rise to 6.3 billion by 2050 from 3.4 billion today, leading to more mega-cities with poor sanitation where dengue and other diseases can thrive, according to a study in The Lancet medical journal last week. 

Globalization has also brought cases of dengue into southern Europe and the United States, particularly Texas and Florida, although Gubler believes higher living standards mean it is not likely to take off in these regions. 

PRICING DECISION For the middle classes of Latin America and Asia, an out-of-pocket purchase of a dengue vaccine probably seems affordable and worthwhile, especially for their children. Yet dengue takes its biggest toll among the poor, who lack money for immunization and are also less likely to get medical help when the disease leads to potentially deadly haemorrhagic fever. 

Getting vaccine to them will need the involvement of international agencies like the GAVI Alliance, which provides routine childhood immunizations in poor countries with funds granted by public and private donors. 

Nina Schwalbe, GAVI's managing director for policy and performance, says she is monitoring the dengue vaccine program closely but needs hard evidence that it offers value for money, based on public health impact, efficacy and price. 

Sanofi is not ready to set a price before it sees the full clinical trial results and has a clearer sense of vaccine yields at its factory. But the drugmaker will embrace "tiered pricing" to make the product affordable, Barollier at the company said. 

That has not stopped the guessing. 

"I would expect, for middle-income countries, they would be looking at prices similar to those of other new vaccines - for example HPV ( human papillomavirus), pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines - which sell for $15 to $70 per course in countries like Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela and Thailand," said IVAC's Levine. 

Setting the price will be a test for Sanofi Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher. He reckons his vaccine is about five years ahead of any others and he knows he has a major opportunity to boost his company's reputation by getting the roll-out right. 

With no specific drugs to treat or prevent dengue - in contrast to malaria - the world needs a success. Likewise, Viehbacher's shareholders, who have seen the company lose top-selling drugs as patents expire, need a commercial winner. They will be watching closely those results from Thailand in September.

none; � t - @j ��i rmal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Nina Schwalbe, GAVI's managing director for policy and performance, says she is monitoring the dengue vaccine program closely but needs hard evidence that it offers value for money, based on public health impact, efficacy and price. 

Sanofi is not ready to set a price before it sees the full clinical trial results and has a clearer sense of vaccine yields at its factory. But the drugmaker will embrace "tiered pricing" to make the product affordable, Barollier at the company said. 

That has not stopped the guessing. 

"I would expect, for middle-income countries, they would be looking at prices similar to those of other new vaccines - for example HPV ( human papillomavirus), pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines - which sell for $15 to $70 per course in countries like Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela and Thailand," said IVAC's Levine. 

Setting the price will be a test for Sanofi Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher. He reckons his vaccine is about five years ahead of any others and he knows he has a major opportunity to boost his company's reputation by getting the roll-out right. 

With no specific drugs to treat or prevent dengue - in contrast to malaria - the world needs a success. Likewise, Viehbacher's shareholders, who have seen the company lose top-selling drugs as patents expire, need a commercial winner. They will be watching closely those results from Thailand in September.

Dengue vaccine in sight, after 70 years

Reuters | 

LONDON: One of the grimmest legacies of the war in the Pacific is still being fought 70 years on, but a victory over dengue, the intensely painful "breakbone fever" which that conflict helped spread around the world, may be in sight. 
The US Army, which like its Japanese enemy lost thousands of men to the mosquito-borne disease in the 1940s, has piled resources into defeating the tropical killer. But it may be about to see the battle to develop the first vaccine won not in the United States but by French drug company Sanofi. 
The Paris-based firm hopes for positive results in September from a key trial among children in Thailand that would set it on course to market a shot in 2015 which would prevent an estimated 100 million cases of dengue infection each year. Of 20,000 annual deaths, many are of children.
For Sanofi, which has invested 350 million euros ($440 million) in a new French factory to make the three-dose vaccine, it could mean a billion euros in yearly sales as half the world is exposed to the disease, notably in fast-expanding tropical cities from Rio and Mexico to Manila and Mumbai. But like British rival GlaxoSmithKline, whose new malaria shot has shown promise against another mosquito-carried scourge, Sanofi is also preparing for pressure to make its drug accessible to billions too poor to pay the likely market price. 

It has been long wait. Identified in local outbreaks in the Americas, Africa and Asia since the 18th century - and noted as a serious military hindrance by U.S. generals in their 1898 war against Spain in Cuba and the Philippines - dengue was spread to global pandemic proportions in part due to the massive movements of armies through the Pacific theatre in World War Two. 
That conflict, in which some 90,000 American troops were put in hospital by dengue, prompted the first efforts to develop a vaccine, as U.S. and Japanese scientists isolated the virus spread by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. But the disease, which can cause intense joint and muscle pain, has gone on sapping the health of troops, from Vietnam to Somalia and Haiti, and made lives miserable for millions of civilians. 

In the past 50 years there has been a thirty-fold jump in cases. The World Health Organisation officially puts infections at 50 to 100 million a year, though many experts think this assessment from the 1990s badly under-estimates the disease. Most patients survive but it is estimated to kill about 20,000 every year, many of these children less able to fight it off. 

TALE OF TWO VACCINES The US Army's quest for a vaccine had most recently been pursued in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline. But Sanofi now seems closest to offering a viable treatment. And, unlike GSK's malaria injection designed for African babies, it promises to be the commercial blockbuster the French firm needs to refresh a portfolio weakened by expiring patents. 
Its estimate of over 1 billion euros in annual sales - Sanofi's 2011 turnover was 33.4 billion euros - assumes that it is added to routine immunization schedules in Latin America and Asia and is also adopted by travelers from farther afield and by military medics in the United States and Europe. 
Meeting that sales potential, while getting the vaccine to hundreds of millions who need it across the tropics, will require a careful balancing act on pricing and supply of a product that has yet to be given a commercial brand name. 

Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the new vaccine is a potential breakthrough but warned its roll-out may not be straightforward. First up, the vaccine needs to be given in three installments over the course of a year in order to counter the threat from four different types of dengue virus, none of which confers immunity for the others. 

"There are going to be some challenges," says Levine. "There's really good economic potential from this vaccine but I think it may take a ramp-up of three to five years." 
SANOFI'S BET In an ideal world, healthcare experts would like a single-dose or, at most, a two-dose vaccine for mass immunization. 
A simpler regimen would also be better for travelers, although Pascal Barollier of Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi's vaccine arm, says many users will be people making regular trips to see families in Latin America or Asia with time to plan ahead. The military, too, often has lead time for troop movements. 
In any case, Sanofi is putting its money where its mouth is by spending 350 million euros on a new dengue vaccine factory near Lyon, which is already in test production. 
It is a substantial gamble, since Sanofi will only learn whether the vaccine really works when it analyses data from a first study of its efficacy on 4,000 Thai children. 
Results from that clinical study, in what is known as the Phase IIb of the international standard three-stage process of assessment, are expected in the third quarter - most likely September. They will also be presented for scientific scrutiny at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta in November. 
If the data is good, Sanofi will file for market approval in countries where dengue is endemic likeAustralia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Mexico in 2013, suggesting a regulatory green light in 2014 and commercial launch in early 2015. 
Submissions in other countries and for the travelers market would follow in 2014 and 2015. 

LOOKING GOOD Early tests have shown a balanced immune response against all four dengue types and Duane Gubler of the Duke-N.U.S. Graduate Medical School, who has researched dengue for four decades, is optimistic. 

"Everything they've done so far looks very good," he says. "I think it will be a much better vaccine than malaria." 

He expects Sanofi's vaccine will show an efficacy rate of at least 75 to 80 percent, well above the 50 percent or so seen with GSK's malaria shot, which faces the added technical problem of fighting a complex parasite rather than a virus. 

The efficacy rate refers to the reduction in the prevalence of subsequent infection among those vaccinated. 

Despite both being transmitted by mosquitoes, dengue and malaria are notably different enemies. 

Malaria, which is carried by a different mosquito, typically attacks rural populations living near swamps. Dengue, by contrast, has adapted to life in the city and is one of the winners of mankind's accelerating rush to urbanize. 

The number of people living in urban areas is projected to rise to 6.3 billion by 2050 from 3.4 billion today, leading to more mega-cities with poor sanitation where dengue and other diseases can thrive, according to a study in The Lancet medical journal last week. 

Globalization has also brought cases of dengue into southern Europe and the United States, particularly Texas and Florida, although Gubler believes higher living standards mean it is not likely to take off in these regions. 

PRICING DECISION For the middle classes of Latin America and Asia, an out-of-pocket purchase of a dengue vaccine probably seems affordable and worthwhile, especially for their children. Yet dengue takes its biggest toll among the poor, who lack money for immunization and are also less likely to get medical help when the disease leads to potentially deadly haemorrhagic fever. 

Getting vaccine to them will need the involvement of international agencies like the GAVI Alliance, which provides routine childhood immunizations in poor countries with funds granted by public and private donors. 

Nina Schwalbe, GAVI's managing director for policy and performance, says she is monitoring the dengue vaccine program closely but needs hard evidence that it offers value for money, based on public health impact, efficacy and price. 

Sanofi is not ready to set a price before it sees the full clinical trial results and has a clearer sense of vaccine yields at its factory. But the drugmaker will embrace "tiered pricing" to make the product affordable, Barollier at the company said. 

That has not stopped the guessing. 

"I would expect, for middle-income countries, they would be looking at prices similar to those of other new vaccines - for example HPV ( human papillomavirus), pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines - which sell for $15 to $70 per course in countries like Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela and Thailand," said IVAC's Levine. 

Setting the price will be a test for Sanofi Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher. He reckons his vaccine is about five years ahead of any others and he knows he has a major opportunity to boost his company's reputation by getting the roll-out right. 

With no specific drugs to treat or prevent dengue - in contrast to malaria - the world needs a success. Likewise, Viehbacher's shareholders, who have seen the company lose top-selling drugs as patents expire, need a commercial winner. They will be watching closely those results from Thailand in September.

none; � t - @j ��i rmal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Nina Schwalbe, GAVI's managing director for policy and performance, says she is monitoring the dengue vaccine program closely but needs hard evidence that it offers value for money, based on public health impact, efficacy and price. 

Sanofi is not ready to set a price before it sees the full clinical trial results and has a clearer sense of vaccine yields at its factory. But the drugmaker will embrace "tiered pricing" to make the product affordable, Barollier at the company said. 

That has not stopped the guessing. 

"I would expect, for middle-income countries, they would be looking at prices similar to those of other new vaccines - for example HPV ( human papillomavirus), pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines - which sell for $15 to $70 per course in countries like Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela and Thailand," said IVAC's Levine. 

Setting the price will be a test for Sanofi Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher. He reckons his vaccine is about five years ahead of any others and he knows he has a major opportunity to boost his company's reputation by getting the roll-out right. 

With no specific drugs to treat or prevent dengue - in contrast to malaria - the world needs a success. Likewise, Viehbacher's shareholders, who have seen the company lose top-selling drugs as patents expire, need a commercial winner. They will be watching closely those results from Thailand in September.

Man shoots wife on crowded street

TNN |  BARASAT: A 26-year-old woman was shot from a close range by her husband on a crowded street while the victim was returning from a job hunt in Ghola on Tuesday. While Shalini Mohanto - the victim - is battling for her life at RG Kar hospital Bikash - her husband - is nursing his wounds, which were inflicted by the bystanders when he tried to escape, atPanihati hospital.Bikash, a private firm employee, had married Shalini barely a year back, but soon the relationship turned sour as the husband started suspecting that Shalini was having an extra-marital affair. The victim had returned to her parental home in Ghola only last week after she could not bear the stress of her marital life at Bikash's house in Kalyani.On Tuesday, Shalini had gone to Barrackpore in search of a job and she was shot on her chest as soon as she stepped out of an auto. Locals said that the husband had been keeping track of her movements for the past few days.When Bikash tried to escape, the bystander caught hold of him and thrashed him severely. Finally he was handed over to police, who admitted him to Panihati hospital. Shalini was also rushed to the same hospital, but she was transferred to RG Kar as her condition worsened.Police said they were yet to get hold of the weapon that was used. They are trying to find out how Bikash managed to procure it. However, Bikash is not in a state to face police interrogation

Man shoots wife on crowded street

TNN |  BARASAT: A 26-year-old woman was shot from a close range by her husband on a crowded street while the victim was returning from a job hunt in Ghola on Tuesday. While Shalini Mohanto - the victim - is battling for her life at RG Kar hospital Bikash - her husband - is nursing his wounds, which were inflicted by the bystanders when he tried to escape, atPanihati hospital.Bikash, a private firm employee, had married Shalini barely a year back, but soon the relationship turned sour as the husband started suspecting that Shalini was having an extra-marital affair. The victim had returned to her parental home in Ghola only last week after she could not bear the stress of her marital life at Bikash's house in Kalyani.On Tuesday, Shalini had gone to Barrackpore in search of a job and she was shot on her chest as soon as she stepped out of an auto. Locals said that the husband had been keeping track of her movements for the past few days.When Bikash tried to escape, the bystander caught hold of him and thrashed him severely. Finally he was handed over to police, who admitted him to Panihati hospital. Shalini was also rushed to the same hospital, but she was transferred to RG Kar as her condition worsened.Police said they were yet to get hold of the weapon that was used. They are trying to find out how Bikash managed to procure it. However, Bikash is not in a state to face police interrogation

Action against 3 personal aides of VS for leaking news

Thiruvananthapuram: CPM state secretariat meet has decided to take action against the three personal staffs of VS Achuthanandan alleging they had leaked party-related news. Action would be taken against press secretary K Balakrishnan, additional private secretary VK Sasidharan and personal assistant A Suresh. The secretariat also sought an explanation from them within a week. A final decision on the kind of action would be decided at the state committee meet by the end of this month. Earlier, the investigation commission appointed by the party had stated that the news on internal affairs of the party are being leaked to the media by them. The commission also recommended their ouster. For the last few years, CPM leadership is miffed with VS press secretary K Balakrishnan, additional private secretary VK Sasidharan and personal assistant A Suresh.

The plan of the Koothuparampa, Panoor Thalassery lobby of CPM is to remove the three and appoint three others. 
party's official section is of the view that Balakrishnan, Sasidharan and Suresh are the strength of VS during his personal movements. Moreover, they act as a ink in connecting people with VS, who are not party activists. 
The activities of the three were against the party most of the time. During the last parliament election, the state leadership believes that VS press secretary Balakrishnan repeatedly called Janatha Dal leader MP Veerendrakumar to ensure victory of MK Raghavan.
The leadership also believes that this three had advised VS to put party under pressure during the murder of TP. The Koothuparampa, Panoor Thalassery lobby of CPM believes that by removing them, VS would be completely dependant on the party. 

Action against 3 personal aides of VS for leaking news

Thiruvananthapuram: CPM state secretariat meet has decided to take action against the three personal staffs of VS Achuthanandan alleging they had leaked party-related news. Action would be taken against press secretary K Balakrishnan, additional private secretary VK Sasidharan and personal assistant A Suresh. The secretariat also sought an explanation from them within a week. A final decision on the kind of action would be decided at the state committee meet by the end of this month. Earlier, the investigation commission appointed by the party had stated that the news on internal affairs of the party are being leaked to the media by them. The commission also recommended their ouster. For the last few years, CPM leadership is miffed with VS press secretary K Balakrishnan, additional private secretary VK Sasidharan and personal assistant A Suresh.

The plan of the Koothuparampa, Panoor Thalassery lobby of CPM is to remove the three and appoint three others. 
party's official section is of the view that Balakrishnan, Sasidharan and Suresh are the strength of VS during his personal movements. Moreover, they act as a ink in connecting people with VS, who are not party activists. 
The activities of the three were against the party most of the time. During the last parliament election, the state leadership believes that VS press secretary Balakrishnan repeatedly called Janatha Dal leader MP Veerendrakumar to ensure victory of MK Raghavan.
The leadership also believes that this three had advised VS to put party under pressure during the murder of TP. The Koothuparampa, Panoor Thalassery lobby of CPM believes that by removing them, VS would be completely dependant on the party. 

4 Malayalees among 5 killed in Salem accident

Salem: Five persons, including four Malayalees, died in a car collision at Athoor, Salem. The deceased are Donal, 40 from Kaladi, wife Dolly, 35, son George, 12, his relative from Chennai and Daisy, 65, wife of Krishnamoorthy.

Raman, 45 from Mailapura who was in the other car also died. Donal's daughter Fiona, 16 , Sujith, 30 relative of Raman are admitted to the Salem Gokulam hospital.

The accident occurred at 2 pm on Tuesday at Salem. The Malayalee family were returning from Velankanni. Raman was on his way to Chennai from Coimbatore. Four died on the spot and George died in the hospital.

4 Malayalees among 5 killed in Salem accident

Salem: Five persons, including four Malayalees, died in a car collision at Athoor, Salem. The deceased are Donal, 40 from Kaladi, wife Dolly, 35, son George, 12, his relative from Chennai and Daisy, 65, wife of Krishnamoorthy.

Raman, 45 from Mailapura who was in the other car also died. Donal's daughter Fiona, 16 , Sujith, 30 relative of Raman are admitted to the Salem Gokulam hospital.

The accident occurred at 2 pm on Tuesday at Salem. The Malayalee family were returning from Velankanni. Raman was on his way to Chennai from Coimbatore. Four died on the spot and George died in the hospital.

Case registered against CPI-M leader

Kannur : In more embarrassment for CPI-M, a case was registered against a top party functionary for allegedly threatening police probing an IUML worker's murder even as a state committee member allegedly asked cadres to store 'chilli water' at their homes to use it against police.

The two developments come even as the party is struggling to battle the controversy stirred by the speech of IdukkiDistrict CPI-M Secretary M M Mani that the party had eliminated political foes in the past.

Police said a case was registered here yesterday against CPI-M Kannur District Secretary P Jayarajan for threateningand levelling personal charges at a recent press meet against policemen enquiring into an IUML activist's murder atTaliparamba, about 19 km from here, some months ago.

Adding to the party's discomfiture, state Committee member M V Jayarajan allegedly asked party workers to storewater mixed with chilli powder to counter police who visit their houses to probe cases against their activists.

'CPI-M activists should store water mixed with chilli powder to counter police who visit their houses to probe casesagainst them,' he allegedly said during a protest march to Taliparamba police station yesterday.After Mani's speech raised a storm of controversy, police on June 4 booked him in a second murder case on the basis of
his speech.

For the first time, the case naming a specific murder of a man in 1980s was registered against Mani and four others inRajakad police station in the district, listing conspiracy and murder charges.Mani has remained defiant and refused to step down from the organisational post. PTI

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Case registered against CPI-M leader

Kannur : In more embarrassment for CPI-M, a case was registered against a top party functionary for allegedly threatening police probing an IUML worker's murder even as a state committee member allegedly asked cadres to store 'chilli water' at their homes to use it against police.

The two developments come even as the party is struggling to battle the controversy stirred by the speech of IdukkiDistrict CPI-M Secretary M M Mani that the party had eliminated political foes in the past.

Police said a case was registered here yesterday against CPI-M Kannur District Secretary P Jayarajan for threateningand levelling personal charges at a recent press meet against policemen enquiring into an IUML activist's murder atTaliparamba, about 19 km from here, some months ago.

Adding to the party's discomfiture, state Committee member M V Jayarajan allegedly asked party workers to storewater mixed with chilli powder to counter police who visit their houses to probe cases against their activists.

'CPI-M activists should store water mixed with chilli powder to counter police who visit their houses to probe casesagainst them,' he allegedly said during a protest march to Taliparamba police station yesterday.After Mani's speech raised a storm of controversy, police on June 4 booked him in a second murder case on the basis of
his speech.

For the first time, the case naming a specific murder of a man in 1980s was registered against Mani and four others inRajakad police station in the district, listing conspiracy and murder charges.Mani has remained defiant and refused to step down from the organisational post. PTI

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3-year old gets spinal deformity corrected in Bangalore

BANGALORE: Manjunath H and Prema, natives of Chitradurga had tears in their eyes when they first saw their 3-year old daughter Akshatha struggling to stand straight and keep her neck in balance about two months back. She was taken to a doctor in Shimoga, who said that Akshatha was born with 'congenital scoliosis'—a spinal deformity, which is characterized by bending of the spine away from the normal curvature.

The couple now have a smiling curve on their face, as Akshatha has regained a normal posture, after she was operated at the Hosmat hospital last week. "She can not only stand but walk and also run," said Dr Yogesh K Pithwa, onsultant spine surgeon with the hospital. According to Manjunath, a conductor with Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), the problem was noticed only two months ago.Normal development of spine bones takes place in the second month of pregnancy. Identifying this problem at an early stage and getting a surgical fixation done can help in curing it."If she was not operated upon, the relentlessly progressive deformity would have affected the chest cavity hampering the normal growth of lungs. This can even lead to premature deaths in some of these unfortunate children," said Dr Pithwa. Akshatha has now recovered well but will need to have regular check-ups done till she turns 15

3-year old gets spinal deformity corrected in Bangalore

BANGALORE: Manjunath H and Prema, natives of Chitradurga had tears in their eyes when they first saw their 3-year old daughter Akshatha struggling to stand straight and keep her neck in balance about two months back. She was taken to a doctor in Shimoga, who said that Akshatha was born with 'congenital scoliosis'—a spinal deformity, which is characterized by bending of the spine away from the normal curvature.

The couple now have a smiling curve on their face, as Akshatha has regained a normal posture, after she was operated at the Hosmat hospital last week. "She can not only stand but walk and also run," said Dr Yogesh K Pithwa, onsultant spine surgeon with the hospital. According to Manjunath, a conductor with Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), the problem was noticed only two months ago.Normal development of spine bones takes place in the second month of pregnancy. Identifying this problem at an early stage and getting a surgical fixation done can help in curing it."If she was not operated upon, the relentlessly progressive deformity would have affected the chest cavity hampering the normal growth of lungs. This can even lead to premature deaths in some of these unfortunate children," said Dr Pithwa. Akshatha has now recovered well but will need to have regular check-ups done till she turns 15