Health experts have sounded an alarm over the nation’s reliance on imported fruits and vegetables, warning that ultra-processing and genetic modification are stripping food of its nutritional value and threatening public health. 

They called for urgent action to shift eating habits back to locally grown, seasonal produce, as concerns mount over the impact of trade policy on the island’s food security.

Speaking at a Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados workshop at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel on Thursday, clinical nutritionist Nicole Elliott, co-chair of the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition, warned that imported produce — particularly apples and corn — may be undergoing ultra-processing or genetic modification that alters their natural characteristics while still appearing deceptively fresh.

“We had an experiment running at school — how long we could keep apples out of the fridge before they went bad — and you can try this out when you get home,” Elliott revealed. “Normal red apples, the ones we used to call ‘50 cent apples’ (gala apples), I guarantee you that if you keep them in the refrigerator, they will last you a year and they will not go rubbery, they will not turn brown. And even if you leave them outside, the same thing will happen. For some reason, those innocent apples that we are accustomed to purchasing now are being subjected to ultra-processing, and they still look like they’re in their natural form.”

She explained that modern food technology and genetic engineering were driving changes that many consumers were unaware of.

“We’ve been seeing product modification and food technology at play for a long time. Depending on where our products come from — and who the importer is — we get foods from countries that do genetic modification, especially with corn, apples, and other items that are in high demand and require large-scale production,” she said.

“So, you’ll find that some apples spoil the way you’d expect — they go through the normal food spoilage process. But others? You leave them out, and nothing happens. They just sit there. Sometimes, you’ll look at an apple and say, ‘This looks too shiny, too perfect,’ almost like the one from the Snow White story. And when you pour hot water on it, the wax coating comes off. That’s because wax is added to make it look more appealing. And that works — we’ve all been conditioned from childhood to think that’s what a ‘good’ apple should look like.”

Elliott cautioned that while not all imported apples or fruits are problematic, Barbadians must begin to think critically about food sources and push for minimal processing.

“Eat the apple — don’t eat the Apple Jacks [cereal]. That’s what I’m saying. We can’t stop eating, but we have to start choosing the lesser of the two evils. A good place to start is eating as close to the farm as possible, as close to the source as possible. Because if that apple already has something added to it at the fresh stage, imagine what’s happening when you start dehydrating it, packaging it in a special kid snack, or mixing it into granola.

“The apple is just an example — not all apples behave the same — but the point is, the more we process it, the further it gets from being an actual apple. By the time you get that so-called ‘apple’, you might as well have been eating dirt. There’s no value left in it — no nutrition, no substance, no flavour — just a name.”

Her comments were echoed by Dr Maddy Murphy, senior lecturer at the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, part of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus. Murphy said the dominance of imported produce in the region’s food systems was driven largely by trade policy — not public health.

“This is one of the biggest issues we have with parents — what are the options? Because the fruits and vegetables are going in a certain direction,” she said. “For most countries in the Caribbean, most of our fruits and veg are imported. [There’s] a whole range of reasons, and it’s not related to health. A lot of this is about the Ministry of Economics and Trade, and those kinds of things. It’s about the World Trade Organisation and being able to bring certain things in.”

Dr Murphy added: “Some of those farms are bigger than some of our islands, so the price that they’re able to send down their fruit and veg — our local products can’t compete a lot of times when it comes to price. That’s something we really need to change in terms of our food and nutrition security.”

She said regional food systems must move towards greater self-sufficiency and cohesion, highlighting the need to increase the availability and appeal of local, seasonal produce.

“We’ve spoken to parents, and they’ll tell you: their kids don’t know what dunks and ackees are any more. They’re just not exposed. When you talk to farmers, they’ll say there’s so much construction and development that a lot of those indigenous fruits and vegetables are being removed and not replaced.”

Both Elliott and Dr Murphy called for renewed efforts to educate Barbadian families — especially children — about local fruits and vegetables, food preparation, and the risks of over-reliance on cheap, imported goods.

“It’s all nice and shiny to have blueberries and strawberries and everything else. But you have a lot of foreigners who come down here — tourists come here and they want to eat our local produce. They see the benefits and talk about breadfruit as a superfood.

“I think what we need to do is education and appreciation for what we have, and really to start getting people to eat local. The food preparation is important. You don’t want to add too many things, but it’s closer to home, it’s less of the pesticides, it’s less of the storage, the waxes and all those things.” 

(SZB)

The post ‘Eat apples, not Apple Jacks’: Bajans urged to eat local, shun ultra-processed imports appeared first on Barbados Today.

New York: AbbVie and IGI Therapeutics SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of New York-based Ichnos Glenmark Innovation, Inc. (IGI), have announced an exclusive licensing agreement for IGI's lead investigational asset, ISB 2001, developed using IGI's proprietary BEAT protein platform, for oncology and autoimmune diseases.

"Multispecifics including trispecific antibodies represent a new frontier in immuno-oncology with the potential to deliver deeper, more durable responses by engaging multiple targets simultaneously," said Roopal Thakkar, M.D., executive vice president, research and development and chief scientific officer, AbbVie. "This partnership with IGI reflects our unwavering commitment to advancing novel therapies for patients with multiple myeloma, a disease where significant unmet need remains despite recent progress."

"ISB 2001 exemplifies the potential of our BEAT protein platform to generate effective multispecifics that may overcome resistance and improve outcomes in hard-to-treat cancers," said Cyril Konto, M.D., President and CEO of IGI. "This agreement marks a defining milestone in IGI's scientific journey and reflects our team's deep commitment to delivering meaningful therapies for patients. Our partnership with AbbVie accelerates ISB 2001's path to patients and sharpens our focus on advancing the next generation of BEAT-enabled assets in oncology."

Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will receive exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize ISB 2001 across North America, Europe, Japan and Greater China. Subject to regulatory clearance, IGI will receive an upfront payment of $700 million and is eligible to receive up to $1.225 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, along with tiered, double-digit royalties on net sales.

ISB 2001 is a  trispecific T-cell engager that targets BCMA and CD38 on myeloma cells and CD3 on T cells currently in Phase 1 for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Developed using IGI's proprietary BEAT protein platform, ISB 2001 was engineered with two distinct binders against myeloma-associated antigens to enhance avidity, even at low target expression levels, while aiming to improve safety over first-generation bispecific antibodies. Recently presented at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting as a Rapid Oral Presentation (Abstract #7514), data from 35 patients demonstrated a sustained overall response rate (ORR) of 79% and a high complete/stringent complete response (CR/sCR) rate of 30% at active doses ≥ 50 µg/kg in a heavily pretreated population of relapsed/refractory myeloma patients, with a favorable safety profile.

U.S. Food & Drug Administration granted ISB 2001 Orphan Drug Designation in July 2023 and Fast Track Designation for the treatment of relapsed/refractory myeloma patients in May 2025.

The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) has shifted gears into the use of aerospace defence systems to protect the country, President Irfaan Ali announced at the commissioning ceremony for a new Italian-made utility plane. “We have expanded our air assets and capability to include our aerospace investment,” he told the event to officially welcome the Tecnam ...

AbbVie has acquired rights to a multispecific antibody that IGI Therapeutics designed to bind to three targets to treat multiple myeloma. Early Phase 1 results showed encouraging responses in a heavily pretreated patient population and a favorable safety profile.

The post AbbVie Pays $700M for Drug Engineered to Overcome Resistance in Multiple Myeloma appeared first on MedCity News.

Data from the latest Global AIDS Update Report, released by UNAIDS, shows the Caribbean recorded a 62% reduction in AIDS-related deaths, between 2010 and 2024, the steepest decline among eight regions globally. According to the report—AIDS, Crisis and the Power to Transform—over the last fifteen years, there has been a 54% decline in AIDS-related deaths ...

So join us as we hoist the ever-present cup of stimulation — our choice today is maple bourbon — and attack the fast-growing to-do list. Have a grand day, everyone, and do stay in touch. …

A court battle between two of the nation’s largest biotechs — Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Amgen — is testing the legal limits of how far drugmakers can go in using patents to thwart competition, STAT writes. The case is being closely watched by companies that sell biosimilar medicines amid concerns that the U.S. patent system is being gamed in ways that critics say can maintain high prices for medicines. The saga began early last year when Regeneron filed a lawsuit accusing Amgen of infringing a key patent on its best-selling Eylea injectable drug, which is used to combat such eye diseases as wet age-related macular degeneration, among other ailments. The treatment, with a list price of nearly $1,900 a shot, is at the heart of a multibillion-dollar product line. At the time, Amgen was one of several companies that hoped to sell a biosimilar version, but Amgen’s approach set it apart from the others — and paved its way to the marketplace earlier than Regeneron had hoped.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will start publishing the rejection letters that companies until now have mostly kept hidden from investors and the public, Bloomberg News reports. “We had a long set of meetings with our lawyers to determine that we can do this,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week. The agency has historically left it up to drugmakers to disclose when and why their medicines are not approved. But companies often give incomplete or misleading accounts of their interactions with regulators, and that can make an application’s deficiencies seem more minor than they really are, Makary said in the interview airing Friday. “There’s an opportunity for companies to spin the results,” he said. “Now, the decision letters will be public for shareholders and the public to see.” Investors have long asked the FDA to share its reasons for rejecting drugs, arguing that companies can use the agency’s silence on the matter to mislead the market.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy, specifically to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), may increase the risk of childhood overweight or obesity. This is the conclusion of a large, pan-European meta-analysis study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the ”la Caixa” Foundation, and recently published in Environment International. The study examined the relationship between exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy and during childhood, and its impact on body mass index (BMI) and the risk of overweight or obesity throughout childhood.

The study is part of the LifeCycle and ATHLETE projects, funded by the European Union, with the aim to evaluate how early life environmental stressors affect health over time. For this research, data were collected from mothers and children from 10 birth cohorts in 8 European countries. In total, 37,111 mother-child pairs participated during the prenatal period and 33,860 during the childhood stage.

The research team calculated pregnancy and annual average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at the family’s place of residence using geospatial models. The study covered air pollution exposures from pregnancy until the children reached 12 years of age. Children's height, weight and age were obtained through clinical assessments or parental reports, and used to calculate BMI. Then, cohort-specific associations between air pollution exposure and childhood obesity outcomes were estimated and pooled together in a meta-analysis of all cohorts.

Higher Risk of Overweight or Obesity in Childhood

Exposure to higher levels of PM2.5 during pregnancy was associated with a 23% increased risk of childhood overweight or obesity. This association was strongest in the 9–12 year age group. However, the study did not observe any associations with exposure to PM2.5 during childhood, nor with NO₂ exposure during pregnancy or childhood.

“Our results indicate that the gestational period may represent a particularly vulnerable window for the risk of childhood obesity. However, further research is needed to precisely identify the critical periods during which exposure to air pollution might influence this risk, and to confirm these findings,” says Sarah Warkentin, an ISGlobal researcher and first author of the study.

“The biological mechanisms that may explain the relationship between exposure to air pollution and weight gain in children are not yet fully understood. In previous studies, exposure to pollution during pregnancy has been linked to reduced fetal growth and low birth weight. This may be due to oxidative stress, inflammation, problems in placental development, or hormonal disruptions. These same processes could also affect growth and increase the risk of obesity during childhood, as shown in animal studies,” explains Martine Vrijheid, director of ISGlobal's Environment and Health over the Lifecourse programme and senior author of the study.

Heterogeneity Among Cohorts

The results showed that the associations between air pollutants and childhood obesity outcomes differed substantially between the different cohorts. For instance, prenatal and postnatal exposure to PM2.5 was associated with a lower BMI at all ages in UK cohorts, whereas childhood exposure to PM2.5 and NO₂ was associated with a higher BMI in a Dutch cohort.

“This heterogeneity could be due to varying levels of air pollution exposure among the cohorts, possible differences in children's lifestyle habits in each country, which could influence their exposure to air pollution and, in turn, their weight, as well as other factors specific to each city's environment,” says Martine Vrijheid.

Reference:

Sarah Warkentin, Serena Fossati, Sandra Marquez, Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen, Sandra Andrusaityte, Demetris Avraam, Ferran Ballester, Tim Cadman, Maribel Casas, Montserrat de Castro, Leda Chatzi, Ahmed Elhakeem, Antonio d’Errico, Mònica Guxens, Regina Grazuleviciene, Jennifer R. Harris, Carmen Iñiguez Hernandez, Barbara Heude,  Ambient air pollution and childhood obesity from infancy to late childhood: An individual participant data meta-analysis of 10 European birth cohorts, Environment International, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2025.109527.