The market
The global antibiotic market is expected to go from $ 26 billion in 2002 to 40.3 billion dollars in 2015. Growth should be strong, despite the fact that industry has been unable to discover completely new antibiotics. Rather, this is a favorable regulatory environment where government insurance programs are ready to pay more for drugs following generalized awareness of antibiotic resistance and the re -emergence of diseases formerly considered to be controlled tuberculosis. The United States is the largest market in the world for antibiotics, where the consumption of this type of prescription medication has been quadrupled in just a decade. Antibiotics were discovered for the first time when Alexander Fleming, in 1929, learned by chance how penicillin controls bacteria. Fleming has never patented penicillin and offered it to the medical community and to society. This earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945. Surprisingly, the antibiotic market which is experiencing the strongest growth today is not that of the protection of human health. It is estimated that 50 to 70 % of antibiotics are administered to healthy animals to stimulate their growth by 2 to 3 %, instead of being administered to patients. While the European Union recently prohibited most of the antibiotics for animals, countries like Denmark were the first to ban this policy in 2000. After a decade, statistics indicate that bacterial resistance to antibiotics decreases . The number of new antibiotics is extremely low. Only five of the thirteen larger pharmaceutical companies are trying to discover new antibiotics. Only five new variations of existing antibiotics were approved between 2003 and 2007 by the FDA, against 16 twenty years earlier. The problem is that antibiotics are only administered to cure a patient, while a patient with cancer or diabetes may have to take medication for life, which represents a more profitable market. At the same time, E.Coli mutations have left specific strains of this germ completely invulnerable to almost all modern antibiotics. About 100,000 Americans now contract diseases in hospitals each year. Staphylococcus aureus resistant to methicillin (STM), a mutated bacterial strain, now kills more Americans than AIDS. It is clear that technology and the market have failed. When the patent of an antibiotic expires, it is sold as a generic drug to a fraction of the original price, which leads to an increase in consumption, which contributes to increasing mutations and bacterial resistance. At the same time, the expiration of the patent leads to a drop in revenue, which implies that lower yields eliminate the budget devoted to research and development. In the end, the inventor, the former patent holder or the generic drug manufacturer does not monitor the acquisition of resistance to this particular antibiotic.
Innovation
Scientists warn that everyday infections could soon become a major cause of death. While the idea of subsidizing the development of drugs at the rate of a billion dollars per drug and guaranteeing coverage to patients seems to be an expensive solution, many wonder how to fill the gap between the urgency of new antibiotics in the Company and low returns - despite massive subsidies that antibiotics sales through government health plans provide pharmaceutical companies. Experts urgently ask that policies be put in place to preserve the effectiveness of existing drugs by preventing their excessive use in medical care and breeding, while ensuring better control of infections in hospitals. Innovative thought goes in the sense that antibiotics are like biodiversity, it is a natural resource that must be preserved and used with great care. James Colthurst, British surgeon and great-grandson of Sir Almroth Wright, inventor of the typhoid vaccine, who worked in the same laboratory as Alexander Fleming, studied electrical effects on the body since his sister had been seriously injured in the head. Because he was known to be involved in this area, he was approached by a group of scientists from the USSR who explored a concept of electrical stimulation as a futuristic tool for health care in space trips. He helped develop their equipment for wider use. Once the perestroika took place and they have chosen to market what they had, Dr. Colthurst… sought to develop his own ideas for electro-biofeedback. Based on the work he had undertaken during his science bachelor as a student neuro anatomy at St. Thomas hospital in 1978, he designed the Fenzian hypothesis. This hypothesis is based on the fact that the nerves come from the same embryonic layer as the skin - the neuroctoderm. A network of nerves, both central, the central nervous system (SNC) including the brain, spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system (SNP), collects, integrates and diffuses information around the body by electrical pulses. These impulses are converted into chemical messengers adjusting cellular activity. Electrical stimulation by means of a simple device that meets all the regulations of the European Union and the United States FDA is similar to nerve pulses that shape a biofeedback process by simple contact with the skin by hiring a Dialogue with the CNS. Soon, Dr. Colthurst and his team were able to collect anecdotal evidence ranging from the treatment of asthma to the healing of wounds, from Bell's paralysis (loss of control of facial muscles) to the treatment of Crohn's disease and systemic lupus. The case where pharmaceutical and surgical products could be replaced by any drugs or surgical operation is one of the characteristics of the simplified blue economy under the concept "replace something with nothing".
The first cash flow
Following a retrospective audit of 600 patients who was published in the bread Clinic (The Pain Clinic, 2007 vol. 19 No. 1), a first pilot study on the use of electrical stimulation based on the fenzian in asthma was published in a letter in the European Respiratory Journal in 2009 (vol. 34 n ° 2 pages 515-517). This study has shown proof of the concept of new treatment without using pharmaceutical products. Although scientists agree that the exact mechanism remains unknown, they have agreed that biofeedback could induce changes in the SNC. This led to the establishment of clinical trials in six medical centers including UCLA, the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the CAP University. At the same time, funds have been made available for in -depth studies at the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre. Scientific research on Manchester wounds continue to give extremely positive results. A number of in vitro studies are now necessary to support the work in vivo in order to prove the scientific path. Meanwhile, Dr. Colthurst has created Fenzian Limited, a private research and medical development company recorded in the United Kingdom, with the support of European investors who have benefited from different degrees of positive experiences with the Fenzian approach to medicine and medical care.
The opportunity
Governments are faced with multiple challenges. On the one hand, the aging of the population implies ever higher costs for health care. Then, the governments face an increasing budget deficit, and it is increasingly difficult for a ministry to approve subsidies of several billion dollars. On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies are faced with an increasingly heavy burden to have new drugs approved, the costs of disputes increase, many drugs are at the end of their life of their patent and counterfeit drugs constitute a growing problem , while surgery and a prolonged stay in a hospital expose patients to potential infections. The wide range of potential applications of Dr Colthurst's pioneering approach with Fenzian technology offers a fresh look that allows pharmaceutical companies to focus only on pharmacological chemistry. Fenzian reduces the need for subsidies, reduces the costs of side effects and works with the inherent ability of the body to heal itself. Using what you have is one of the fundamental principles of the blue economy.
