On Tuesday at the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, scientists and global health experts focused on malaria eradication, Agence France-Presse reports. "Key among the strategies ... is the development of an effective anti-malaria vaccine, a project scientists have been researching since the late 80s. ... RTS,S is the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine so far, according to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative," the news service writes (11/3). [More]

Pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer on Tuesday formally launched ViiV Healthcare, a company focused on the development of new HIV treatments, Dow Jones Newswires/SmartMoney.com reports (11/3). [More]

By 2031 developing countries could need an estimated $35 billion to fight HIV/AIDS - three times the amount currently spent, according to a Health Affairs study published Tuesday, the New York Times reports. [More]

"International cancer specialists meet this week to plan an assault on a troubling increase of breast cancer in developing countries, where nearly two-thirds of women aren't diagnosed until it has spread through their bodies," the Associated Press reports. Researchers will also look at "some worrisome data" that suggests breast cancer affects "women, on average, about 10 years" earlier in developing countries than it does in the U.S. (Neergaard, 11/3). [More]

Infants born to women who received influenza vaccine during pregnancy were hospitalized at a lower rate than infants born to unvaccinated mothers, according to preliminary results of an ongoing study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine. The team presented the study October 29 at the 47th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Philadelphia. [More]

Raycop, the first handheld anti-bacterial vacuum cleaning system and part of the Earlex® brands, offers a proven way to fight the H1N1 virus in the home with its UVC technology. The vac's effects against the virus have been independently tested by a leading international laboratory in August. [More]

As if there weren't enough reasons to stop smoking, a team of researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have just found another. A study led by Dr. Christian A Pineau, Co-Director of the Lupus and Vasculitis clinic at the MUHC, has clearly linked skin damage and rashes to smoking in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The study was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Rheumatology. [More]

Schering-Plough Corporation today announced it has initiated sponsorship of two projects in India to reduce the incidence of human and animal rabies through improved educational awareness and mass vaccination of dogs. The company will donate $200,000 and rabies vaccine from Intervet/Schering-Plough as well as share expertise with partners to support successful implementation of the projects in ten villages surrounding Bangalore and Pune, India. [More]

Responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and tackling so-called neglected tropical diseases are the focus of the November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs. The articles, by leading global health experts from around the world, show that although these challenges differ dramatically, rising to meet them could save millions of lives. [More]

Schering-Plough Corporation today announced that its investigational sublingual Grass (Phleum Pratense) Allergy Immunotherapy Tablet (AIT) has met the primary endpoint in a Phase III study of adult subjects in the U.S. with a history of grass pollen induced rhinoconjunctivitis with or without asthma. The investigational Grass AIT treatment is designed to work by inducing a protective immune response against grass pollen allergy and providing sustained prevention of allergy symptoms, treating both the symptoms and the underlying cause of the disease. [More]

Another large community H1N1 influenza clinic has been scheduled by the Macomb County Health Department, the department announced today. It will be held at Freedom Hill County Park in Sterling Heights this Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Freedom Hill is located at 14900 Metropolitan Parkway. [More]

Community pharmacists have stepped up to meet the shortage of Tamiflu by compounding doses for children suffering from the H1N1 flu virus, but they are struggling with supply problems and insurance plans, according to the National Community Pharmacists Association. [More]

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, in the Crohn's disease drug market, the dominance of TNF-alpha inhibitors such as Abbott/Eisai's Humira and Centocor Ortho Biotech/Schering-Plough/Mitsubishi Tanabe's Remicade will continue over the next decade. Sales of Humira and Remicade, which accounted for more than three-quarters of the market in 2008, will continue to grow through 2018 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan. [More]

A pivotal efficacy trial of RTS,S, the world's most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate, is now underway in seven African countries: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. The trial, which is expected to involve up to 16,000 children, is on schedule, with more than 5,000 children already enrolled, researchers announced Tuesday at the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Pan-African Malaria Conference. [More]

Schering-Plough Corporation today reported that interim results from an ongoing Phase IIa study of narlaprevir (SCH 900518), its investigational, once-daily protease inhibitor, demonstrated potent antiviral activity in treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1. [More]