6 OCTOBER 2015: Nobel medicine to fight parasitic diseases

Ø  Germany welcomed India’s decision to set up a fast-track system for German companies in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The wing, which will become fully operational by 2016, found prompt appreciation from the visiting German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who said: “I was very glad we were able to sign the fast-track agreement today so that the speed with which you provide licences to companies to set up business is increased.” The exclusive special window for Germany will be the second since a similar wing was created for Japan after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan in September 2014. Declaring this special wing at the end of the Inter-Governmental Consultations, the trade-heavy joint statement repeatedly drew attention to the business ties between the two countries. The fast-track mechanism was one of the several initiatives declared to smoothen business ties. To encourage stronger business ethics, both sides entered into an agreement to train corporate executives and junior executives. Several such smoothening measures in the joint statement and the list of agreements have produced the impression that the Germans are anxious about India delivering on the promise of growth and development under Mr. Modi. “Challenges remain on the trade front that we are working to resolve,” Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told journalists, at the end of the day-long diplomacy.

Ø  Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering “therapies that have revolutionised the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases,” the Nobel committee announced. William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won for developing a new drug, Avermectin. A derivative of that drug, Ivermectin, has nearly eradicated river blindness and radically reduced the incidence of filariasis, which causes the disfiguring swelling of the lymph system in the legs and lower body known as elephantiasis. They shared the $900,000 award with Youyou Tu, who discovered Artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced death rates from malaria. Parasitic worms afflict a third of the world’s population, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by single-cell parasites that invade red blood cells, kills more than 450,000 people a year, most of them children. After decades of limited progress in developing durable therapies for parasitic diseases, the discoveries by this year’s laureates radically changed the situation. Tu won a Lasker Award in 2011 for her discovery of Artemisinin. When used in combination therapy, it is estimated to reduce mortality from malaria by more than 20 percent overall, and by more than 30 percent in children.

Ø  he U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 per cent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress and will inject a new flash point into both parties’ presidential contests. But the accord — a product of nearly eight years of negotiations, including five days of round-the-clock sessions in Atlanta— is a potentially legacy-making achievement for President Barack Obama, and the capstone for his foreign policy “pivot” toward closer relations with fast-growing eastern Asia, after years of U.S. preoccupation with West Asia and North Africa. Mr. Obama spent recent days contacting world leaders to seal the deal. Administration officials have repeatedly pressed their contention that the partnership would build a bulwark against China’s economic influence, and allow the U.S. and its allies — not Beijing — to set the standards for Pacific commerce. The Pacific accord would phase out thousands of import tariffs as well as other barriers to international trade. It also would establish uniform rules on corporations’ intellectual property, open the Internet even in communist Vietnam and crack down on wildlife trafficking and environmental abuses. Several potentially deal-breaking disputes kept the ministers talking through the weekend and forced them repeatedly to reschedule the promised Sunday announcement of the deal into the evening and beyond. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the partnership eventually would end more than 18,000 tariffs that the participating countries have placed on U.S. exports, including autos, machinery, information technology and consumer goods, chemicals and agricultural products ranging from avocados in California to wheat, pork and beef from the Plains states. Japan’s other barriers, like regulations and design criteria that effectively keep out U.S.-made cars and light trucks, would come down.