CHRISTMAS trees into Tamiflu 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 quite have the ring of 鈥渟words into ploughshares鈥�, but it may save as many lives. That, at least, is what the Canadian firm Biolyse Pharma of St Catharines, Ontario, is suggesting.
Flu pills from Christmas trees
Tamiflu, aka oseltamivir, is the one drug that works against bird flu, and governments are hoarding tonnes of it in case of a pandemic. Problem is, the drug is expensive. The patent-holder, Roche, has said one reason for this is that the drug has hitherto been made out of a rare molecule found in a particular variety of star anise from China and鈥� well, the market is the market.
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However, Biolyse says the molecule in question, shikimic acid, can be found in more or less 鈥渁nything botanical鈥�, especially conifers. Biolyse knows its conifers, because it boils the cancer drug paclitaxel out of yew trees, so when the bird flu scare in 2005 drove the price of shikimic acid above $1000 a kilo it set about locating a ready supply.
No problem: at the beginning of 2006, the city of Toronto happily donated its residents鈥� discarded Christmas trees. Landfill operators don鈥檛 like conifers anyway, as they can be a fire hazard. All Biolyse had to do was get the old, dead trees out of the dumps.
Their needles, all dried and powdered, are now sitting unused in a warehouse. The company let its shikimic acid riches be known during a campaign to persuade the Canadian government to allow it to sell generic oseltamivir to poor countries in accordance with World Trade Organization rules for patented drugs. In July the government agreed, but in the mean time the price of shikimic acid has plummeted to $50 a kilo, perhaps because fear of the flu has waned, or perhaps because the market had become aware of Biolyse鈥檚 potentially huge supply. Now it鈥檚 cheaper to buy shikimic acid on the open market than get it out of the needles, the company says.
鈥淔rom the Department of Helping Customers Avoid Really Silly Mistakes: David Chattaway opened a packet of 鈥渇inest ham鈥� to discover a label reading 鈥淒o not eat this label鈥濃��
Nevertheless, if a pandemic strikes, Biolyse says it will be able to use its needles to make a million pills a day. Who ever said things of value don鈥檛 grow on trees?
A NOTICE over a small door in the restaurant Tricia Peake and her daughter were eating in said 鈥淪taff Only Mind Your Head鈥�. Does this mean, they wonder, that the management is unconcerned about the risk of customers banging their heads?
Not that the people behind the counter at Sarah Briars鈥檚 local post office would have worried. She spotted a sign on the door that reads: 鈥淭he shop will be closed today from 1-2 pm due to short staff. We apologise for the inconvenience.鈥�
ANOTHER strange Amazon book recommendation based on previous purchases (18 November). The online retailer recommended to Ian Angus that he purchase Microsoft Office 2003: Introductory Concepts and Techniques, Premium Edition. This book, Amazon explained, was 鈥渞ecommended because you purchased Best Business Crime Writing of the Year鈥�. Angus wonders what Amazon is trying to tell him.
CAN anyone translate this press release from The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA)? It tells us: 鈥淕enerics Provide 鈥楲ife Jacket鈥� for Seniors Falling Into Medicare Prescription Drug 鈥楧oughnut Hole鈥�, Says GPhA.鈥�
PALAEONTOLOGISTS working in the Gobi desert of Mongolia 鈥渉ave unearthed a record 67 dinosaurs in one week鈥�, as New 杏吧原创 reported (23 September, p 5). The press release that inspired the report concludes: 鈥淭he paleontologists found two meat-eating fossils.鈥� This prompted Bill Gijsen to wonder what exactly the museum will be feeding them on.
WE KNEW that people up and down the UK tend to consume rather a lot at this time of year, but had not realised quite how serious the problem is. According to the issue of Good Food magazine that Jonathan Ormond has been reading, 鈥淭he average household throws away more than 3 kilograms of food and 14 kilograms of food packaging a week, and produces around 160,000 tonnes of food waste at Christmas.鈥�
FINALLY, thanks to everyone who sent in alien SMS entries for our New Year competition. They have been a lot more entertaining than the average SMS message, and the winning entries will be published in our next issue (6 January). In the meantime, you might enjoy the prize quiz on the New 杏吧原创 website at www.newscientist.com/quizoftheyear2006.ns.
Thanks, too, to everyone who has written to Feedback over the year with a wealth of witty observations and story contributions. There have been thousands of them 鈥� too many, sadly, for us to answer every message or to include all the story ideas in the column, but we read them all and it has been a lot of fun.
It only remains to wish all our readers compliments of the season and a happy 2007.