Medicine professor Hans Zingg

PHOTO: PIERRE DUBOIS, ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL

The mystery of premature births

BRONWYN CHESTER | It's the leading cause of infant mortality. It affects seven per cent of all babies born in this country and that number is rising. Meanwhile, scientists have little idea of what causes it.

The problem is premature birth and McGill reproductive endocrinologist Hans Zingg has just been awarded a $1.1 million Wyeth-Ayerst Canada Inc. Clinical Research Chair in Women's Health which will allow him to heighten and continue his research on just what causes babies to be born too early.

Zingg's chair is one of four in women's health created this year in a joint program between the drug company Wyeth-Ayerst Canada Inc., the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of Canada and the associated universities. To each chair, Wyeth contributes $500,000, the university a matching $500,000 and the MRC, $100,000.

The 27 applicants considered for the chairs all had to be medical doctors working in the area of women's health in one of the following fields: mental health, perinatology, reproductive endocrinology or cardiovascular health. The other chair-holders are McMaster University psychiatry professor Harriet MacMillan, University of Ottawa Heart Institute professor Ruth McPherson, in cardiovascular disease, and University of Western Ontario perinatologist Bryan Richardson.

Zingg, who directs the Royal Victoria Hospital's Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory studies the sources, pathways and workings of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin has long been known to be involved in the onset of labour, but just how the mother, fetus or placenta triggered the contractions remains a mystery.

"The whole process of parturition is very much like a symphony," says Zingg. "It's very hard to distinguish which one of the hormones secreted by the fetus, the placenta and the mother plays first fiddle in this concert which normally ends in the crescendo of birth."

Zingg emphasized at the award presentation last week that his work is fundamental research involving "exploring the mechanisms by which oxytocin and other hormones interact with specific membrane receptors located at the surface of uterine cells."

While such research may be a long way from the development of a drug that would halt premature contractions -- current drugs can do that only for a maximum of seven days and can cause serious side-effects such as heart failure -- Dean of Medicine Abraham Fuks reminded the audience that "health research begins in the laboratory. That's where the polio vaccine began.

"To get from molecules to mothers, you need a lot of academic talent," he noted, as well as "companies that can support and develop research."

Aldo Baumgartner, president and CEO of Wyeth-Ayerst, concurred with the latter point, reminding listeners that "55 years ago Ayerst (before joining with Wyeth in 1993) and McGill [Dr. J. Bertram Collip] began research on menopause." That resulted in the development of the estrogen replacement drug Premarin, the world's most prescribed medication, which Wyeth-Ayerst continues to produce.

Baumgartner noted that these four chairs, slated to last for five years, come at the end of phase one of the MRC/PMAC Health Program partnerships which involved $205 million dollars from the 60 member drug companies and $30 million from the MRC.

The program was forged in 1993, one result of Bill C91, which prolonged the patent protection on their drugs from 17 to 20 years -- thereby preventing the generic drug firms from producing cheaper copies and claiming a part of the drug market -- in exchange for the promise to invest in Canada in the development of new drugs.

"We've created a model (tripartite collaboration) which others in years to come will imitate," said Baumgartner, highlighting the fact the drug companies have no involvement in the selection of chair holders. "It was a peer-review committee that chose Hans Zingg, which is a tribute to him and his team."

Bernard Leduc, a perinatologist at the Royal Vic before joining Wyeth-Ayerst, said while speaking at the presentation that his company has a "growing commitment to the creation of research chairs. Four is not enough; I would like to see them from coast to coast. It's the best way to develop Canadian healthcare and the discoveries and development of new drugs."

In addition to this newly created chair, Wyeth-Ayerst funds two McGill fellowships, one in obstetrics and gynecology, the other in psychiatry.