Biotech companies race to find option to needles

San Francisco Everybody hates needles.

Millions of diabetics aggravate their disease by skipping insulin injections. Countless Americans would rather risk the flu than get inoculated against the virus each year.

Seeing financial promise in this fear of the needle, several biotechnology companies are scrambling to develop alternative delivery systems, including inhaled versions of injectable drugs.

Gaithersburg, Md.-based MedImmune Inc. is hoping the Food and Drug Administration will approve its nasal spray flu vaccine in time for the upcoming flu season.

Many doctors have eagerly awaited the spray vaccine, saying the pain-free method would encourage more vaccinations.

Dr. Stephen Farr, above, vice president of research and development at Aradigm, holds up an insulin packet used in their inhalers at company headquarters in Hayward, Calif.

Hunters hope to track game with cell phones

Helsinki, Finland Along with the sounds of rifles, the wilds of the Finnish forests will ring with strange crackles this fall as hunters command their dogs by mobile phone.

In the land of Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, hunters are hoping to track bears, ducks and elk better by strapping cell phones with tracking devices onto the backs of dogs.

A dog’s bark will help determine what animal it has tracked from hundreds, if not thousands of miles away, and hunters will be able to give orders on the two-way mobile system.

“We can hear the dog absolutely live, whether it is running on a road or in the forest,” Asko Makinen said as he stroked Retu, a Finnish spitz, with a mobile phone strapped on its back in a plastic pouch.

“The most important thing is that we can see exactly where the dog is moving on a map,” Makinen added.