SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: China’s latest threat: lifesaving medications.

https://x.com/NuryVittachi/status/2063080651792986617

Nury Vittachi

CHINESE SCIENTISTS created a new medicine that is being hailed as a breakthrough in the fight against lung cancer, it was revealed this week. 

“And the results here, I think, are quite astounding,” said Dr Monty Pal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in a YouTube video review. “What we see here is an improvement in median overall survival.”

Yet the development of the new drug, called ivonescimab in English, is being portrayed as worrying news by politicians and media in the US. Why? 

The US elite’s congenital megalomania means it has to be number one in every field. This need triggers extreme paranoia—and means that Chinese lifesaving advances are bad news. 

.

NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT
“It’s a war right now with China,” said United States Department of Health and Human Services Chris Klomp at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference.  

"We face a national security threat right now...it's not one of missiles and tanks. It's of laboratories and life-saving medications.”

Oh no! Not life-saving medications! 

Will the dastardly Chinese stop at nothing?
 
But it gets worse.  If American patients become reliant on the Chinese for drugs, there is a risk of “creating a new Strait of Hormuz”, said former FDA chief Dr. Peter Marks, quoted in the New York Times.

That’s a telling remark. Not only is the paranoia up front and center, but look at the example he chose. The US created an entirely needless problem in Iran, with thousands dead and millions suffering from fuel shortages.

Western political plays have real world consequences for both sides--and innocent parties, too. 
 
.

CHINA SCIENTISTS GET TOP SPOT
The medical issue escalated last week at the annual ASCO global gathering of oncologists (cancer doctors). 

The five biggest breakthroughs are given top-of-the-bill presentation slots—and politicians and journalists were shocked when one of them went to Chinese medical scientists who conducted their trials in China. 

.

THE ISSUES
Let’s look at the issues, one by one:

Are there serious concerns that the new drug, ivonescimab, doesn’t work or only works on Chinese people? 

- No. The drug was created by a Chinese firm called Akeso Biopharma, and it is already used successfully in China. There has since been a global study in the United States, Canada and Europe, too, to ensure diversified data. 

Are there worries that China may deny sending this and other drugs to Americans?

- No. Chinese companies keep the rights for their own country and then license the drugs in the US to American firms. Ivonescimab in the US is a product of Summit Therapeutics of Miami.

Is there concern that the data is false? 

- No. The Lancet, a medical academic journal, has already printed a study saying that people who got the new drug had a 34 percent lower death rate. 

Is the problem that the Chinese copied the drug from the US? 

- No. That’s not how science works. Science advances through data-driven breakthroughs, irrespective of where they take place.

So what is the problem? 

It’s the usual one: the US needs to dominate everything, whoever gets hurt. In the case of medicines from China, the victims of needless hostility will include US citizens, if drugs are delayed or banned.

.

BUILDING WALLS 
President Donald Trump has already signed legislation that prevents US government bodies signing contracts with Chinese biotech firms, however beneficial their products and services may be. 

And separately, politicians in Congress are trying to get rules passed that prevent the recognition of data from clinical trials in Mainland China or Hong Kong.

Some US journalists also appear less interested in the scientific breakthroughs than the politics of who is making them. The New York Times report last week on the topic began with these lines: 

“For decades, an annual gathering of oncologists has featured drug trials that were run mainly at American and European hospitals.

“But at this year’s meeting, which is being held in Chicago this weekend, the signs are everywhere of China’s ascendance as a powerhouse in drug development — and of the threat that many believe it poses to American biotechnology.”

China’s latest threat: lifesaving medications.