On November 19, 2009, the kick-off meeting for the Euregio-project "EurSafety Health-net" has taken place. EurSafety Health-net is the follow-up of EUREGIO MRSA-net, that, according to the Robert Koch Institute, gained some sort of model character all over the nation when talking about prevention of hospital acquired MRSA infection. Besides the protection against infection, the main goal of this new project is to strengthen the patients' safety on both sides of the border. [More]

Arlington Medical Resources (AMR) and Decision Resources find that the leading driver of antibiotic selection in nosocomial pneumonia in Europe is broad-spectrum activity against gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens. [More]

PolyMedix Inc. (http://polymedix.com), an emerging biotechnology company developing acute care therapeutic drug products for infectious diseases and cardiovascular disorders, announced today that it has completed a public offering of units for aggregate gross proceeds of $20.7 million. [More]

Despite advances in treatment regimens and the best efforts of nurses and doctors, about 70% of all people with severe burns die from related infections. But a revolutionary new wound dressing developed at Tel Aviv University could cut that number dramatically. [More]

someone at home who has H1N1 (swine) flu, it is important for you to prevent other people in the house from getting sick, according to Gary Kalkut, MD, MPH, Senior Vice-President, Chief Medical Officer of Montefiore Medical Center. [More]

Entellus Medical, the Minnesota-based developer of novel, less invasive treatments for chronic conditions of sinusitis, has completed its Series D financing totaling $30MM. The Series D round was led by new investor Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and supported by existing investors Split Rock Partners and SV Life Sciences. [More]

New antibiotics for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other pesky bacteria. Andrei Osterman and collaborators have used comparisons of bacterial genomes to identify new targets for antibiotics and produced first-generation chemical inhibitors of a class of bacterial enzymes, called NadDs (nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyltransferases). [More]

LEAD Therapeutics, a privately held drug discovery company, today announced the discovery of a novel, orally available, PARP inhibitor with potent anti-tumor activity both as single-agent treatment and in combination with chemotherapy drugs. [More]

PPD, Inc. today announced it has entered an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. to develop and commercialize two Phase II-ready therapeutic compounds, one to treat diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-d) and the other to treat complicated skin and skin structure and respiratory infections. [More]

Sequella, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on commercializing products to treat life-threatening infectious diseases, today announced that it amended an existing agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to significantly broaden the licensed therapeutic indications, or "field of use," for Sequella's lead drug candidate, SQ109. [More]

Aradigm Corporation today announced that the first patient was dosed in a 6-month, multicenter, international Phase 2 clinical trial of a novel version of inhaled ciprofloxacin (ARD-3150) in 40 adult patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. [More]

"Now that we know how the body defends itself against the Chlamydia bacteria, we can develop a vaccine that optimises that defence. We have a basic understanding of how the vaccine could work, but some work remains to be done. We believe that it will take a few years before the vaccine becomes a reality," says researcher Ellen Marks, the author of the thesis. [More]

Combination drug therapy has become a staple for treating many infections. For instance, doctors treat extensively drug resistant forms of tuberculosis with one drug that breaks down the pathogen's protective barriers and opens the door for another to deliver the deathblow. [More]

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have received a $4 million federal grant to develop new antibiotics to treat anthrax, tularemia and plague. [More]

Bayfront Medical Center has selected Clinical Xpert CareFocus from Thomson Reuters as its clinical surveillance solution for improving Core Measures outcomes and patient safety indicator (PSI) scores while also supporting infection control and pharmacy intervention initiatives. [More]