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(wz) World Health Organization statistics imply that infertility and sterility will be the third most serious diseases in the 21st century after cancer and cardiovascular diseases, according to a Life Times report.
InvoBioscience (OTC:IVOB) is engaged in providing its InvoCell technology to help infertile couples have a baby. It has one principal product, the manufacturing and distribution of the InvoCell technology.
InvoBioscience has rapidly conquered many countries with a big market potential. Distributor contracts have been signed all over the world; registration process for clearance when it is needed has been started as well. Their strategy to focus on other countries first rather than the classic USA FDA path was very well done. InvoBioscience’s incomes have started to growth on each part of the world.
While InvoBioscience has many distribution agreements coming up or already signed for many countries, this article focuses here only on the biggest markets potential.

Chinese Market
Couples in China, the world’s most populous nation, are having difficulty conceiving. Infertility in the country has risen from 12.5 to 15 percent but that number could climb quickly to about 20, according to a report released recently at a forum in Beijing.
However the price tags are prohibitive for most people – worth several or many times their annual salary – but an increasing number of Chinese families are now able to afford the treatment.
“Actually more than 10 million Chinese families need artificial fertilization”, according to Xinhua news agency.
Professor Lu Bodong, vice president of the Second Hospital of Zhenjiang Chinese Medical University in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, attributes rising infertility rates to stressful and unhealthy lifestyles that include excessive drinking and smoking, over-indulgence, and also environmental problems, all of which are side effects of China’s dramatic social and economic changes. more…

From: »favstocks.com«

(cz) A new £3.3m fertility centre which is one of the largest in the UK has officially opened in Leeds.
Former facilities at Leeds Infirmary and St James’s, have now been combined to create the Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine.
This is one of the largest in the UK, providing approximately 2,000 IVF treatment cycles a year and will improve care for fertility patients.
Mike Collier CBE, chairman of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, officially opened the new facility at Seacroft Hospital where two former wards have been transformed to house the service which will serve Leeds and West Yorkshire.
The new facility also offers a full range of regional services for a large part of the north of England, treating both NHS contracts and self-funding patients.
Professor Adam Balen said: “We have an international reputation for world-class research ranging from the basic science of egg and embryo development, to the management of conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome and the preservation of fertility for women about to undergo cancer therapy.” more…

From: »Yorkshire Evening Post«

(wz) A 59-year-old woman, Sue Tollefsen, has become the oldest person to be offered fertility treatment at a British clinic.
Miss Tollefsen, a retired teacher, who already has a two-year-old daughter, has been approved in principle for IVF at the private London Women’s Clinic on Harley Street, despite guidelines advising against treatment in those over 50.
The case has sparked a fierce debate over the ethics of fertility treatment for post-menopausal women and has led to calls for the Government to introduce legislation preventing it.
Miss Tollefsen, from Braintree in Essex, travelled to Russia to have her first child, Freya, two years ago, but now wishes to have a sibling for her daughter.
In September, she and partner Nick Mayer, who is 11 years her junior, approached the London Women’s Clinic, one of the most successful IVF units in the country, after being turned down by scores of other centres.
She underwent a consultation with the clinic’s medical director Peter Bowen-Simpkins who said there “compelling reasons” why she should be approved for treatment.
Mr Bowen-Simpkins said there remained a number of processes to go through before IVF could start, but the case had in principle received unanimous support from the clinic’s governance committee.
Providing Miss Tollefsen fufills a series of strict criteria the case will go before the clinic’s executive for full approval.
Last night Mrs Tollefsen told The Daily Telegraph: “I have always accepted that I would come up against a great deal of people who would be very negative about what we are doing.
“However, I think that when you look at the kind of loving and caring family we are, you have to ask: why should we be denied the opportunity to have another child and to give our daughter a sibling.
“I feel as fit as a fiddle approaching 60 and I’m confident that I could have a child, despite my age. Obviously, I do worry that, if I have another child, when he or she reaches their 10th birthday, I will be 70.
“However, my partner is 11 years younger than me, so I know that even if I am not around in the years to come, Nick would be and so our children would have their father to bring them up.
“I do sometimes wish that I had done this 20 years ago or more, so that I could know that I would definitely be able to see our children grow up, get married and have children of their own.”
She added: “If the doctors in Britain say that I can’t do it, then we would consider going back to Russia to get a second opinion. But, ultimately, having another baby isn’t something we’ve said we are going to do, no matter what - we will only go ahead if the medical advice is that it is safe for me to carry another child. more…

From: »The Daily Telegraph«

(sz) A couple who spent £100,000 and 25 years trying to become parents have finally succeeded after the woman gave birth to twins.
Neil Ward, 56, and his wife Monique Ward, 46, started their quest for a baby by trying to conceive naturally after they were married in May 1985. But after six months without success tests showed that Mr Ward had a low sperm count.
In 1986 they started a process on the NHS where sperm is put directly into the uterus through a catheter, but eight attempts later it had not worked.
They realised IVF was the best option and spent £12,000 on three fruitless attempts. Four years later they tried a different IVF technique, remortgaging their house to pay for four rounds with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection at a cost of £5,000 a treatment but again all failed.
In 2002 they attended a consultation at the Midland Fertility Clinic in Aldridge, West Mids, where they were told Mrs Ward’s age meant they would need donor eggs.
There was a two year waiting list, so they started to look at other options and found the IVI Fertility Clinic in Valencia, Spain.
In November 2008, donor eggs and sperm were put directly into Mrs Ward’s uterus, but after a month it became clear it had not worked. It had cost, including travel and other expenses in the region of £17,000.
They decided to try once more and five months later the same treatment led to Mrs Ward becoming pregnant with twins.
Their sons, Benjamin and Walker, were born a month prematurely, delivered by Caesarean section at Stafford District Hospital on December 29 and have only just been allowed home. more…

From: »The Daily Telegraph«

(sz) The issue of fertility treatment for post-menopausal women raises a number of medical and ethical concerns which have become the subject of fierce debate.
One of the most pressing concerns is the ability of an older mother to care for her child in advancing years.
Many campaigners argue that it is unfair on the child to have a parent who may die when they are still very young, but supporters insist youth is no guarantee of life expectancy and the most important thing is that the youngster has a loving home.
With no upper age limit enshrined in law there are also fears that as science advances there will be those who are tempted to push the boundaries even further with women in their 70s eventually allowed to conceive.
Those opposed to IVF for older women claim the welfare of the child is being lost amid the efforts to push the scientific boundaries ever further.
But supporters of IVF for the over 50s insist maturity can be advantageous in parenting as older people tend to have more spare time and money to lavish on their child.
Pro-life groups also argue that if a woman cannot conceive naturally due to her age then science should not intervene.
But fertility expert Professor Ian Craft points out that there have been cases of women giving birth after the menopause which he argues justifies giving IVF to women in their 50s. more…

From: »The Daily Telegraph«

(wz) Dr Richard Fisher and Dr Freddie Graham brought in vitro fertilisation or IVF to New Zealand 27 years ago. They both were made companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year honours.
“Hey egg, meet the sperm.”
Gynaecologist and obstetrician Dr Richard Fisher says in vitro fertilisation, or IVF, isn’t creating life, but nurturing it.
“We get all the materials together, and then we nurture that growth,” he says.
Dr Fisher and Dr Freddie Graham, also a gynaecologist and obstetrician, brought IVF to New Zealand 27 years ago.
The Remuera and Parnell residents have been made companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the recent New Year honours for services to medicine.
They were both surprised about the honour and believe their successful careers are largely based on good luck.
“We work with wonderful people. We received the honours because of a great team,” Dr Fisher says.
IVF is a process where egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside of the womb then placed into the woman’s uterus to create a pregnancy.
In 1983 when IVF first began in New Zealand it was a well-kept secret - the hospital board didn’t even know.
“In those days when you wanted to do a new treatment you just did it,” Dr Graham says. “We had to keep very quiet about it until the first pregnancy.”
When the news was announced, attitudes were mixed and IVF was thought of as a controversial treatment. The hospital board was worried about the extra costs and protesters who were against the treatment sat outside the two doctors’ homes and National Women’s Hospital.
“The first I heard of protesters was when I read in the paper that Richard’s letterbox had been bombed,” Dr Graham says.
He also had his fair share of protesters.
“I said: ‘I don’t do abortions any more’ and they said: ‘But you throw away embryos’.”
Within the first year there was a seven-year waiting list for people wanting IVF treatment. To qualify for the treatment back then women had to be in a long-term relationship, but not necessarily married.
“That was a big deal back then,” Dr Graham says. more…

From: »East & Bays Courier«

(wz) European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) 26th annual meeting, Sunday 27 June - Wednesday 30 June 2010

Fiera Roma
Via Portuense, 1645-1647
00148 Rome
Italy
www.fieraroma.it

Reproductive medicine is one of the most exciting scientific and clinical areas. Every month different announcements of research developments, medical ‘firsts’, new rulings by regulatory bodies, or ethical controversies are published and often spark a heated debate among practitioners in the field, as well as ethicists, legislators, the media and the public.

ESHRE’s annual meeting is the forum where more than 8,000 of the world’s leading experts in reproductive medicine gather to give the first public presentation of their latest research findings and to discuss issues that are presenting law-makers and ethicists with some of the most challenging problems and difficult decisions currently facing society. Deadline for abstract submission is 1 February 2010. more…

From: »The Medical News«

ESHRE direct link

(cz) Parental demand for “designer babies” screened to lack faulty genes will grow dramatically over the next decade, with new discoveries about the influence of DNA on health, a leading geneticist has predicted.
As science learns more about the genetic roots of disease, couples will increasingly seek DNA tests on their embryos when starting a family, according to David Goldstein, of Duke University in North Carolina.
By 2020, researchers will have discovered many more genetic variations that substantially raise the risk of common conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and psychiatric disorders, and it will be possible to detect these in embryos, he said. This will feed much wider interest in embryo screening, which is currently used by only a few dozen couples each year, and encourage fresh controversy over the ethics of designer babies.
Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Goldstein said that his expectations about the speed at which genetics would advance had led him to make a “confident but uncomfortable” prediction about the future of screening. “The identification of major risk factors for disease is bound to substantially increase interest in embryonic and other screening programmes,” he said. more…

From: »The Times«

(wz) A national sperm donor centre is being set up in Manchester at St Mary’s Hospital.
It has won the chance to run a pilot scheme after all licensed fertility clinics in England were invited to tender for the centre.
The centre’s launch later this month will be backed up by a major promotional campaign to increase the number of donors.
Its creation follows recommendations from the British Fertility Society.
In Britain, demand for treatment with donated sperm greatly outweighs its availability. Because of this the BFS recommended a ‘regional hub and spoke system’ to provide a national sperm donation service programme - and St Mary’s will run the pilot scheme funded by the Department of Health.
Prof Daniel Brison, of the regional IVF unit and co-director of the north west embryonic stem cell centre, said: “The trial will have three main elements. Firstly we will set up a system where donors are able to go to their local hospitals to donate sperm, which will then be delivered by couriers to St Mary’s to be analysed and frozen.
“This will assist donors greatly as normally they have to make about 25 visits to hospital.
“Secondly, we can provide other fertility units with sperm at cost.
“Finally, an advertising campaign will be used in a bid to recruit more donors in the north west. If the scheme works, it will be set up in other areas of the UK.
“We are pleased that St Mary’s has won the bid as it brings kudos not only to St Mary’s and the Trust, but the city. The way we pitched the bid was with sporting excellence and humour. The city is already known for two great football teams and a cricket team.”
St Mary’s will now provide the bulk of the donor management and local centres elsewhere in the country will provide direct services for recipients. more…

From: »The Manchester Evening Post«

(wz) Humanity has always longed to possess the regenerative powers of other living things. The Mexican walking fish can regrow a severed limb, and if you cut the freshwater hydra into pieces, each will become a new creature.
The idea of possessing such powers is the stuff of ancient myths and science fiction. But with a new technique known as cell reprogramming, the reality may be soon upon us.
The field of regenerative medicine took a great leap forward in 2006 when scientists discovered how to turn back the biological clock of ordinary adult cells so that they began to look and act like embryonic stem cells. Called ”induced pluripotent stem” (iPS) cells, they possess the amazing capacity to develop into any cell type in the body.
This advance opens up some marvellous medical possibilities. Skin cells harvested from a patient with heart damage might be turned into iPS cells on the way to becoming heart muscle. These reprogrammed cells could then be transplanted, with negligible risk of immune rejection, back into the original patient. This same technique may eventually be able to regenerate just about any of your body’s tissues.
Another use for cell reprogramming is the study of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and cancer. Last year scientists took skin cells from patients suffering Lou Gehrig’s disease and transformed them into the nerve cells affected by this condition. Diseased cells grown in this way may also be used to test new treatments, from drugs to gene therapy.
Aside from medical potential, no embryos need be destroyed to produce iPS cells. Many hope they will replace embryonic stem cells and finally end the moral and political controversies that have plagued stem-cell research. If that were to happen, the pro-life camp and their opponents could walk away happy. more…

From: »The Sydney Morning Herald«

But can cell reprogramming really live up to these high expectations? Is it as ethically trouble-free as many seem to think?

The invention and study of iPS cells has depended heavily on embryonic stem-cell research, and this is not going to change in the near future. Since iPS cells are designed to mimic embryonic stem cells, the latter can be said to provide the ”gold standard” against which the former must be measured. The job of comparing the two still has a long way to go. Moreover, embryonic stem cells are much closer to being used in clinical trials than iPS cells.