Rifampicin News and Research

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Janssen receives positive opinion from EMA CHMP for ZYTIGA to treat mCRPC

Janssen-Cilag International NV (Janssen) announced today that the Committee for Medical Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted a positive opinion recommending approval of the oral, once-daily medication ZYTIGA for use in combination with prednisone or prednisolone in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), in adult men who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic after failure of androgen deprivation therapy and in whom chemotherapy is not yet clinically indicated.

19 Nov 2012

Intensified antibiotic treatment can improve prognosis of patients with TB meningitis

Researchers from the Radboud UMC have conducted the first study globally to show that intensified antibiotic treatment can improve the prognosis of patients with tuberculous (TB) meningitis, the most severe form of TB which carries a mortality of up to 50%.

3 Nov 2012

Sanofi, TB Alliance form research collaboration to search for new treatment compounds

French drug maker Sanofi on Thursday announced a new three-year research collaboration agreement with the TB Alliance "to accelerate the discovery and development of novel compounds against tuberculosis," RTTNews reports.

21 Sep 2012

TB Alliance, Sanofi partner to discover and develop novel compounds against tuberculosis

Sanofi and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development announced today a new research collaboration agreement to accelerate the discovery and development of novel compounds against tuberculosis (TB), a deadly infectious disease that resulted in almost 1.5 million deaths worldwide in 2010.

21 Sep 2012

Natural antibiotic to treat tuberculosis

A natural product secreted by a soil bacterium shows promise as a new drug to treat tuberculosis report scientists in a new study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine. A team of scientists working in Switzerland has shown how pyridomycin, a natural antibiotic produced by the bacterium Dactylosporangium fulvum, works.

17 Sep 2012

Antibiotics: facts and fictions: an interview with Dr Philippa Binns, clinical adviser at NPS MedicineWise

Antibiotics are medicines used to treat infections or diseases caused by bacteria, such as some respiratory tract infections (including pneumonia and whooping cough), urinary tract infections, skin infections and infected wounds.

6 Sep 2012

MDR-TB, XDR-TB more widespread than previously believed, study shows

In a study published on Wednesday in the Lancet, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that "[a]mong 1,278 patients who were resistant to two or more first-line tuberculosis drugs in Estonia, Latvia, Peru, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Thailand, 43.7 percent showed resistance to at least one second-line drug," which "suggest[s] the deadly disease may become 'virtually untreatable,'" according to the study, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

31 Aug 2012

Antibiotics: do they affect contraceptives?

NPS MedicineWise has released information for consumers about taking antibiotics when also using hormonal contraceptives, explaining that there are only two antibiotics that affect how hormonal contraceptives work.

23 Aug 2012

GeneXpert TB test maker Cepheid signs deals with PEPFAR, USAID, others to provide lower-cost kits

Diagnostics company Cepheid on Monday signed deals with PEPFAR, USAID, UNITAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to immediately reduce the price of its Xpert MTB/RIF test kit for its GeneXpert tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic system in 145 countries, Reuters reports.

8 Aug 2012

Children with negative TB skin test at high risk for mortality

Children with clinical signs of tuberculosis but with a negative tuberculin skin test result should not have treatment delayed, suggest study findings showing that false-negatives are common and associated with high mortality.

7 Aug 2012

New combination therapy for TB shows promise in Phase II study

"Results from a groundbreaking trial of three drugs given in combination -- one of them completely new and one not yet licensed for this use -- killed more than 99 percent of patients' [tuberculosis (TB)] bacteria after two weeks of treatment," and the combination "appears to be equally effective on drug-resistant TB," the Guardian reports.

25 Jul 2012

New diagnostic test for drug-resistant TB allows 'new approach' to fight disease

The widespread incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) "calls for a new approach to TB in the developing world," a Bloomberg editorial states.

11 Jul 2012

TB research finds body’s own response helps TB bacteria survive

Inhibiting a key immune response in mice during initial multi-drug treatment for tuberculosis could — paradoxically — shorten treatment time for the highly contagious lung infection according to new research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the Center for TB Research. Shorter duration of drug therapy is key, researchers say, to increase treatment compliance for the growing global health threat posed by the disease.

28 Jun 2012

International Roadmap for TB Research outlines priorities

In this post in the PLoS "Speaking of Medicine" blog, guest blogger Christian Lienhardt, senior scientific adviser at the Stop TB Partnership and WHO, "discusses the International Roadmap for Tuberculosis (TB) Research, a framework outlining priority areas for investment in TB research."

30 Jan 2012

European Respiratory Journal publishes updated WHO guidelines on drug-resistant TB

The European Respiratory Journal is today publishing the updated guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) that aim to help manage drug-resistant tuberculosis.

4 Aug 2011

PET scans can help determine patients' response to treatment for HIV-MDR tuberculosis

With the deficiencies in knowledge of tuberculosis-as well as in the practices, programs and strategies used to combat the disease and co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus-the spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis poses a major problem for the health care community.

25 May 2011

Diagnostic test Xpert MTB/RIF proven fast and effective in low-resource settings

The Lancet published a significant development for TB diagnostics yesterday with concrete and encouraging study outcomes on the effectiveness of the new Xpert MTB/RIF test for TB and rifampicin resistance in realistic health care field conditions. One of the authors, Prof. Mark Nicol of the University of Cape Town (South Africa) who contributed to this study, is an EDCTP Senior Fellow. The article demonstrates that the test can effectively be used in low-resource settings to simplify early and accurate diagnosis of patients. The potential impact is a reduction in the morbidity associated with diagnostic delay, dropout and mistreatment. The article has appeared online on 19 April 2011 and will be published in volume 377 on 30 April 2011.

20 Apr 2011

Scientists devise new strategy to prevent spread of drug-resistant bacteria

A team of scientists from the University of Oxford, U.K. have taken lessons from Adam Smith and Charles Darwin to devise a new strategy that could one day slow, possibly even prevent, the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. In a new research report published in the March 2011 issue of GENETICS, the scientists show that bacterial gene mutations that lead to drug resistance come at a biological cost not borne by nonresistant strains.

19 Mar 2011

FDA approves Forest Labs' Daliresp to treat COPD

Forest Laboratories, Inc. announced today that Daliresp was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment to reduce the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations in patients with severe COPD associated with chronic bronchitis and a history of exacerbations.

1 Mar 2011

USAID, PEPFAR and HHS welcome WHO's endorsement of rapid diagnostic test for TB

The United States welcomes the policy statement and roadmap issued today by the World Health Organization (WHO) charting the rollout of the Xpert MTB/RIF rapid diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) and rifampicin resistance, a proxy for multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

9 Dec 2010