Soledad O’Brien, CNN’s celebrated anchor and special correspondent, will host the Latino Commission on AIDS’s annual benefit gala – Cielo Latino – to be held Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at Cipriani Wall Street, Guillermo Chacon, president of the Commission, announced today. [More]

Many patients with chronic conditions do not take as much of their medication as they should. As a result, the effectiveness of the treatment is often suboptimal, and it also becomes more expensive. Until now, the extent to which the guidance of patients could be improved to promote the correct use of medication had been unclear. [More]

REGENERX BIOPHARMACEUTICALS, INC. announced today that researchers have correlated Tβ4 levels with the clinical course of patients with hepatitis B virus-related liver failure. It was reported that serum thymosin β4 levels were significantly lower in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection and that the magnitude of the reduction of thymosin β4 was closely related to the severity of the hepatic injury and to patient death. Since patients with higher Tβ4 levels survived the disease, changes in Tβ4 values could reflect outcome in some liver failure patients. [More]

NexBio, Inc. today announced the issuance by the United States Patent and Trademark Office of United States Patent No. 7,645,448 entitled "Class of Therapeutic Protein Based Molecules". This patent covers NexBio's sialidase pharmaceutical compositions, including its lead compound DAS181 (Fludase®), and methods of treating or preventing viral infection by influenza and parainfluenza with such compositions. [More]

Debiopharm Group, a Swiss-based global biopharmaceutical group of companies with a focus on the development of prescription drugs that target unmet medical needs, today announced the signature of an exclusive licence agreement with Novartis for the development, manufacture and commercialisation of Debio 025 (alisporivir), a selective, first-in-class cyclophilin (Cyp) inhibitor with a potent anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) effect. The product is currently in phase 2b clinical development for the treatment of hepatitis C. Debiopharm granted Novartis worldwide commercialisation rights to Debio 025 except for Japan. [More]

Corgenix Medical Corporation, a worldwide developer and marketer of diagnostic test kits, and Tulane University, today announced a major extension of the collaborative effort to combat viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF), an effort that will generate an additional $800,000 in contract revenue for Corgenix over the life of the contract. [More]

Psyadon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted its Investigational New Drug Application (IND) to study ecopipam in patients with Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND). The first center at which the drug will be evaluated is Emory University under the direction of Dr. Hyder A. Jinnah, MD, PhD. The study is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of different doses of ecopipam in adults (group 1), adolescents (group 2) and children (group 3) with LND. [More]

Novavax, Inc. announced today new data from a clinical study that began in May of 2009 among healthy adults 18 to 49 years of age with Novavax's trivalent seasonal influenza Virus-like Particle (VLP) vaccine. The vaccine matched the influenza strains recommended for the 2008-2009 influenza season including H1N1 A/Brisbane/59/2007, H3N2 A/Brisbane/10/2007, and B/Florida/04/2006 strains. [More]

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have signed a license agreement with Genentech, a wholly owned member of the Roche group, and Roche, that grants the companies exclusive rights to manufacture, develop and market human monoclonal antibodies to treat and protect against group 1 influenza viruses. These viruses include the strains for the current seasonal and H1N1 influenzas. Genentech and Roche also have a non-exclusive right to manufacture, develop and market diagnostic tests for group 1 influenza. [More]

Cerus Corporation announced today that its Phase 1 trial of red blood cells treated with the INTERCEPT Blood System met its primary endpoint, with preliminary analysis demonstrating that greater than 75 percent of treated cells continued to circulate 24 hours following transfusion. The INTERCEPT red blood cell system is a pathogen inactivation treatment the company is developing to protect against transmission of infectious diseases through red blood cell transfusions. An estimated 70 million units of red blood cells are transfused worldwide each year. [More]

GeoVax Labs, Inc., an Atlanta-based, biopharmaceutical company developing human vaccines for diseases caused by HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and other infectious agents, today provided an update on its vaccine trials progress. [More]

In PLoS Medicine this week a study conducted in a multi-country HIV treatment program in sub-Saharan Africa has found that pregnancy rates increase in HIV-infected women after they start antiretroviral therapy (ART). [More]

The first head-to-head comparison of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies produced from plants versus the same antibodies produced from mammalian cells has shown that plant-produced antibodies can fight infection equally well. [More]

It is already known that blueberries are rich in antioxidants and vitamins. New research from the Lund University Faculty of Engineering in Sweden shows that blueberry fibre are important and can alleviate and protect against intestinal inflammations, such as ulcerative colitis. [More]

On Sunday, February 7, the country will commemorate the tenth annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. It’s a day that reminds us that HIV/AIDS is still a public health crisis in the US. And it’s a day when communities and organizations across the country come together to recognize the impact this disease has had on the African American community. [More]