Yeah Folks Bush is Coming to Unicamp

Brazil Ready to Tap Amazon for Drugs and the Land for Fuel
Written by Newsroom
Saturday, 10 February 2007

Ahead of US President George Bush's visit, Brazil announced plans to invest almost US$ 5 billion over the next 10 years into biotechnology research involving renewable energy, agriculture and rain forest pharmaceuticals.
"Brazil has 20% of the world's biodiversity and immense forests. The goal is to activate that potential," said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
More than half Brazil's territory is covered by the Amazon rain forest. Governments have long talked of tapping its potential as a source of pharmaceutical discoveries, but bureaucracy and lack of investment have slowed progress.
The funding should come from public and private investment. The government will contribute 60%, including funds from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), and the private sector will provide the rest, Development Minister Luiz Furlan said.
However Furlan did not explain if the private funding was already guaranteed. Lula said he would promote research into rain forest plants, while continuing to fight deforestation.
He cited Brazil's ethanol program as proof the country can profit from biotechnology. The aim was for Brazil to become a global leader in biotechnology in the next 10 to 15 years, he said.
Brazil is a powerhouse agriculture exporter that became a global biofuels leader by investing in sugar cane ethanol over the last three decades.
United States and Brazil are expected to sign an ethanol development alliance to foster bio-fuel production when President George Bush visits the country early next March. Brazil and the U.S. together produce 70% of the world's ethanol supplies.
Earlier this week, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns visited Brazilian capital Brasília to talk with top Brazilian ministers about moving forward on fixing common ethanol standards and boosting joint ethanol initiatives across Latin America.
One of the proposals that both sides discussed was jointly constructing a pilot ethanol plant in the Caribbean.
Local analysts and traders said that if the two countries had the political will to forge ahead with such an ethanol alliance in coming years, then it would be a win-win situation for both sides - and Latin America as a whole.
Brazil, the world's No. 1 ethanol exporter, and the only country in the world with significant agricultural area left to ramp up expansion, would benefit from having additional markets for its product.
At the same time, the U.S., which almost certainly will face a supply shortage if its alternative fuels target of 35 billion gallons by 2017 is made law, would gain from having a larger market of producers in the region.
Finally, regional countries - from the Caribbean to Chile and Argentina - could reduce their dependence on costly imported petroleum if local ethanol industries were fostered, generating both jobs and revenues for domestic workers.
However Adriano Pires, Director of the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure cautions that "the only reason that ethanol will take off, and stay economical, is if petroleum prices don't go lower".
"Brazil is the Saudi Arabia of ethanol," said Walder de Goes, the president of the Brazilian Institute for Political Studies in Brasília. "I think this is fantastic news."
Brazil is the world's lowest-cost producer of sugar and ethanol.
Both Brazil and the U.S. jointly produced roughly 38 billion liters of ethanol in 2006, according to data from Brazil's main cane association, the Union of Sugarcane Industries.

Weight - Loss Drug

February 8, 2007
Over-the-Counter Weight-Loss Drug Is Approved
By STEPHANIE SAUL
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved the first officially sanctioned weight-loss drug to be sold without a prescription.
Experts expect the drug, Alli, to be available to consumers in the summer.
Although the medication has been available by prescription since 1999, some experts predict that it will be more widely used as an over-the-counter product. It will be the lone government-approved alternative to unproven over-the-counter remedies.
People in the United States spend about $1 billion a year on herbal formulas and other supplements that advertise fast weight loss but have no proven effectiveness and can be dangerous.
An official of the food agency, Dr. Curtis J. Rosebraugh, called the approval important in light of the array of unproven products on the market.
“It’s rather significant that there will now be available an over-the-counter product that we do have data on, that we know is efficacious and what the safety profile is,” Dr. Rosebraugh said.
An obesity specialist in Washington, Dr. Arthur Frank, said Alli had a safe track record and could help patients lose 5 percent to 10 percent of their weight.
On the negative side, Alli can cause side effects like diarrhea and oily stools.
The marketing plan calls for a realistic approach to emphasize the need to diet and exercise while taking the medication. In studies, about half of those taking Alli in combination with a diet and exercise plan lost 5 percent or more of their body weight in six months.
The manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, said it planned to sell the medication for $1 to $2 for a day’s dose. The company has predicted that five million to six million people a year will use the drug.
The approval was issued as the government is under pressure to address an increasing obesity problem. Roughly 31 percent of adults, or 60 million people, meet the criteria for obesity. Experts say more than 64 percent of the adults are overweight.
The agency is reviewing another weight-loss drug. That compound, rimonabant, works on the pleasure centers in the brain to suppress appetite. It would be available only by prescription.
Alli is an over-the-counter version of a prescription drug, Xenical, which has been sold in the United States since 1999. Although Xenical is sold in 120-milligram doses, Alli will be sold in 60-milligram capsules.
Glaxo studies have shown that the 60-milligram dose provides 85 percent of the weight loss of the higher dose. One capsule is supposed to be taken at mealtime.
The drug blocks the breakdown and absorption of fat in the intestine, at the same time blocking the absorption of calories from that fat. Fat that is not absorbed merely passes through the system, and that is the reason for the side effects like flatulence, oily stools and occasional loss of bowel control.
“Say you have a big fatty meal,” said Dr. Frank, medical director of the George Washington University Weight Management Program. “It blocks the absorption of a lot of fat, which is good, except that when you get a lot of fat way down in your colon, you have a chance of diarrhea, loose stools and unpleasant intestinal symptoms.”
He has been on an advisory panel for Glaxo.
Dr. Jana Klauer, a weight-loss and nutrition specialist in Manhattan, said the side effects had been a deterrent to it as a prescription medication.
“I haven’t had terrific success with it,” Dr. Klauer said. “My patients just don’t like the side effects. I use it a little bit, but not a lot.”
Through its intestinal side effects, the drug also creates an aversion to eating excessive fat, another reason it works, Dr. Frank said.
Studies have shown that the intestinal symptoms are somewhat lower at the over-the-counter dose, the F.D.A. said. The side effects can also be minimized by eating a diet of no more than 30 percent fat.
Glaxo will package capsules with seven pocket reference guides that provide advice on meal planning, what to order when eating out, a fat and calories counter, and a journal for recording daily food intake.
The educational plan will include a Web site, myalli.com, where patients will be able to log in, track progress and obtain personalized advice.
The product was approved despite protests from the Public Citizen Health Research Group, which cited studies linking the prescription version with precancerous changes in the intestine.
Dr. Frank said the product had a good safety record.
“It’s safe,” he said. “There’s no question it’s safe. It’s a nonsystemic drug. It’s not absorbed by the intestine. The only thing it does, it runs through the intestinal tract and drags out some fat with it.”
Dr. Frank expressed concerns that some patients would buy the pills, not read the educational material and then have diarrhea.
Dr. Klauer said the potential for abuse was a concern.
“Whenever anything is over the counter, there is a potential for abuse, and I have no doubt that that’s going to happen,” she said. “I think people who don’t really need it will take it. People who don’t need to lose weight will take it.”
Because Alli blocks the absorption of some vitamins, people who use it must also take a multivitamin.
Selling to children is not prohibited. The label will say it is intended for use by those 18 and older.
The approval followed the recommendation of an advisory panel last year that favored over-the-counter status by a vote of 11 to 3.

Folder IFS Comunicação Ltda.

DNA Sampling

February 5, 2007
U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling
By JULIA PRESTON
The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected.
The new forensic DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little-noticed amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of sexual crimes. The amendment permits DNA collecting from anyone under criminal arrest by federal authorities, and also from illegal immigrants detained by federal agents.
Over the last year, the Justice Department has been conducting an internal review and consulting with other agencies to prepare regulations to carry out the law.
The goal, justice officials said, is to make the practice of DNA sampling as routine as fingerprinting for anyone detained by federal agents, including illegal immigrants. Until now, federal authorities have taken DNA samples only from convicted felons.
The law has strong support from crime victims’ organizations and some women’s groups, who say it will help law enforcement identify sexual predators and also detect dangerous criminals among illegal immigrants.
“Obviously, the bigger the DNA database, the better,” said Lynn Parrish, the spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, based in Washington. “If this had been implemented years ago, it could have prevented many crimes. Rapists are generalists. They don’t just rape, they also murder.”
Peter Neufeld, a lawyer who is a co-director of the Innocence Project, which has exonerated dozens of prison inmates using DNA evidence, said the government was overreaching by seeking to apply DNA sampling as universally as fingerprinting.
“Whereas fingerprints merely identify the person who left them,” Mr. Neufeld said, “DNA profiles have the potential to reveal our physical diseases and mental disorders. It becomes intrusive when the government begins to mine our most intimate matters.”
Immigration lawyers said they did not learn of the measure when it passed last year and were dismayed by its sweeping scope.
“This has taken us by storm,” said Deborah Notkin, a lawyer who was president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association last year. “It’s so broad, it’s scary. It is a terrible thing to do because people are sometimes detained erroneously in the immigration system.”
Immigration lawyers noted that most immigration violations, including those committed when people enter the country illegally, are civil, not criminal, offenses. They warned that the new law would make it difficult for immigrants to remove their DNA profiles from the federal database, even if they were never found to have committed any serious violation or crime.
Under the new law, DNA samples would be taken from any illegal immigrants who are detained and would normally be fingerprinted, justice officials said. Last year federal customs, Border Patrol and immigration agents detained more than 1.2 million immigrants, the majority of them at the border with Mexico. About 238,000 of those immigrants were detained in immigration enforcement investigations. A great majority of all immigration detainees were fingerprinted, immigration officials said. About 102,000 people were arrested on federal charges not related to immigration in 2005.
While the proposed rules have not been finished, justice officials said they were certain to bring a huge new workload for the F.B.I. laboratory that logs, analyzes and stores federal DNA samples. Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said they anticipated an increase ranging from 250,000 to as many as 1 million samples a year.
The laboratory currently receives about 96,000 samples a year, said Robert Fram, chief of the agency’s Scientific Analysis Section.
DNA would not be taken from legal immigrants who are stopped briefly by the authorities, justice officials said, or from legal residents who are detained on noncriminal immigration violations.
“What this does is move the DNA collection to the arrest stage,” said Erik Ablin, a Justice Department spokesman. “The general approach,” he said, “is to bring the collection of DNA samples into alignment with current federal fingerprint collection practices.” He said the department was “moving forward aggressively” to issue proposed regulations.
The 2006 amendment was sponsored by two border state Republicans, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona and Senator John Cornyn of Texas. In an interview, Mr. Kyl said the measure was broadly drawn to encompass illegal immigrants as well as Americans arrested for federal crimes. He said that 13 percent of illegal immigrants detained in Arizona last year had criminal records.
“Some of these are very bad people,” Mr. Kyl said. “The number of sexual assaults committed by illegal immigrants is astonishing. Right now there is a fingerprint system in use, but it is not as thorough as it could be.”
Ms. Parrish, of the rape victims’ organization, pointed to the case of Angel Resendiz, a Mexican immigrant who was known as the Railroad Killer. Starting in 1997, Mr. Resendiz committed at least 15 murders and numerous rapes in the United States. Over the years of his rampage, Mr. Resendiz was deported 17 times. He was executed in Texas in June.
“That was 17 missed opportunities to collect his DNA,” Ms. Parrish said. “If he had been identified as the perpetrator of the first rapes, it would have prevented later ones.”
Immigration lawyers said the DNA sampling could tar illegal immigrants with a criminal stigma, even though most of them have never committed any criminal offense.
“To equate somebody with a possible immigration violation in the same category as a suspected sex offender is an outrage,” said David Leopold, an immigration lawyer who practices in Cleveland.
Forensic DNA is culled either from a tiny blood sample taken from a fingertip (the F.B.I.’s preferred method) or from a swab of the inside of the mouth. Federal samples are logged into the F.B.I.’s laboratory, analyzed and transformed into profiles that can be read by computer. The profiles are loaded into a database called the National DNA Index System.
The F.B.I. also loads DNA profiles from local and state police into the federal database and runs searches. Only seven states now collect DNA from suspects when they are arrested; of those, only two states are authorized by their laws to send those samples to the federal database.
Mr. Neufeld, of the Innocence Project, said his group supported broad DNA collection from convicted criminals. But, he said, “There is no demonstrable nexus between being detained for an immigration matter and the likelihood you are going to commit some serious violent crime.”
The DNA amendment has divided women’s groups that are usually unified supporters of the Violence Against Women Act, which was adopted in 1994.
“We were stunned by the extraordinary, broad sweep of this amendment,” said Lisalyn Jacobs, vice president for government relations at Legal Momentum, a law group founded by the National Organization for Women. Ms. Jacobs recalled that the amendment had been adopted by a voice vote with little debate. She said many lawmakers eager to renew the act, which enjoys solid bipartisan support, appeared unaware of the scope of the DNA amendment.
“The pervasive problems of profiling in the United States will only be exacerbated by such a system,” Ms. Jacobs said, because Latino and other immigrants will be greatly over-represented in the database. She noted that the law required a court order to remove a profile from the system.
Many groups warned that the measure would compound already severe backlogs in the F.B.I.’s DNA processing. Mr. Fram of the F.B.I. said there had been an enormous increase in the samples coming to the databank since it started to operate in 1998, but no new resources for the bureau’s laboratory. Currently about 150,000 DNA samples from convicted criminals are waiting to be processed and loaded into the national database, Mr. Fram said.
He said the laboratory had added robot technology to speed the processing. But in the “worst case scenario,” where the laboratory receives one million new samples a year, Mr. Fram said, “there is going to be a bottleneck.”