Drugs News and Research

RSS

To achieve 'AIDS-free generation,' apply scientific advancements in HIV treatment in the field

In this post in GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, Katherine Record, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School's Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, explains "[w]hy the wall between the scientific advancements in AIDS treatment and the treatment itself needs to be broken down in order to truly achieve an 'AIDS-free generation.'"

13 Jul 2012

Negative suggestion can induce symptoms of illness

Negative suggestion can induce symptoms of illness. Nocebo effects are the adverse events that occur during sham treatment and/or as a result of negative expectations. While the positive counterpart—the placebo effect—has been intensively studied in recent years, the scientific literature contains few studies on nocebo phenomena.

13 Jul 2012

Studies show success, highlight challenges of PrEP strategy

The results of three clinical trials published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine show that the antiretroviral drug Truvada, a combination of tenofovir and emtracitabine, can be "highly effective at preventing infection in HIV-free individuals -- as long as those individuals take the drug every day as prescribed," CNN's "The Chart" reports (7/11).

13 Jul 2012

Heart disease risk in elderly could be lowered by drugs

More patients aged 75 and over should be prescribed drugs to help lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, a study published today on bmj.com suggests.

13 Jul 2012

Opioids for chronic noncancer pain discouraged

US experts have called for more selective and cautious opioid prescribing for chronic noncancer pain, because of concerns over misuse of the drugs and continued uncertainty over when and for how long they should be prescribed.

12 Jul 2012

New tool for pharmaceutical industry: VCD from BioTools

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD), a new tool for determining the absolute configuration of chiral molecules, was a key highlight of the recent 24th International Symposium on Chirality, held June 10-13 in Fort Worth, Texas. VCD pioneer, BioTools (Jupiter, FL) was on hand, not only sponsoring the exhibitor’s luncheon and the poster awards, but also proudly awarding the Best Poster Given by a Young Scientist for the thirteenth year.

12 Jul 2012

Eisai, Verastem partner for next-generation of small molecule Wnt inhibitors

Verastem, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat breast and other cancers by targeting cancer stem cells, announced a research collaboration with Eisai for the next-generation of small molecule Wnt inhibitors.

12 Jul 2012

In-patient suicides continue to fall across all countries: Report

Deaths by suicide among mental health patients treated at home have reached 150 to 200 a year in England, latest national figures reveal - but suicides among patients on mental health wards continue to fall.

12 Jul 2012

First Edition: July 12, 2012

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz, working in collaboration with The Philadelphia Inquirer, reports: Penn is one of a small, but growing number of hospitals taking their advertising campaigns to Facebook, Google and other websites. Fewer than 150 of the nation's 6,000 hospitals use Google and Facebook to market services, estimates Rob Grant, executive vice president of eVariant, a Simsbury, Ct.-based hospital consulting firm.

12 Jul 2012

Nottingham researchers to lead Avastin clinical study for AMD

Nottingham researchers are leading a study to test the effectiveness of a controversial drug in the treatment of a common loss of vision.

12 Jul 2012

Maraviroc reduces incidence of GvHD in blood cancer patients after bone marrow transplantation

An HIV drug that redirects immune cell traffic significantly reduces the incidence of a dangerous complication that often follows bone marrow transplants for blood cancer patients, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

12 Jul 2012

PLoS Medicine papers examine HIV treatment as prevention

Early treatment with antiretroviral medication can significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission to an uninfected sexual partner, "but many logistical hurdles stand in the way of making this strategy feasible, affordable and effective, according to experts writing in Tuesday's edition of the journal PLoS Medicine," the Los Angeles Times reports.

12 Jul 2012

Many anti-malaria drugs in Africa fake or substandard, reports show

"Many of Africa's anti-malaria drugs are fake or of poor quality, weakening a crucial battle against the world's deadliest disease, a new investigation has found," GlobalPost reports, adding, "Many of the drugs -- even those approved by the World Health Organization -- are Chinese fakes or low-quality variants that failed quality tests, according to two new studies released today."

12 Jul 2012

Obama administration's intellectual property policy inflating medical costs abroad

Noting that the Supreme Court last week upheld the Obama administration's Affordable Health Act, Huffington Post reporters Zach Carter and Sabrina Siddiqui write in this Huffington Post editorial that "while the president has focused on lowering health care costs at home, he has repeatedly sought to impose higher drug prices abroad." They add, "For pharmaceutical companies, that has meant steady profits, but for the global poor in desperate need of affordable drugs, those lofty prices are often a matter of life and death."

12 Jul 2012

Researchers identify set of laboratory-based biomarkers that aid in diagnosis of schizophrenia

In the current online issue of PLoS ONE, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say they have identified a set of laboratory-based biomarkers that can be useful for understanding brain-based abnormalities in schizophrenia. The measurements, known as endophenotypes, could ultimately be a boon to clinicians who sometimes struggle to recognize and treat the complex and confounding mental disorder.

12 Jul 2012

New drug combination could offer hope to children with neuroblastoma

A new drug combination could offer hope to children with neuroblastoma - one of the deadliest forms of childhood cancer - by boosting the effectiveness of a promising new gene-targeted treatment.

12 Jul 2012

TGen's customized procedure produces high amounts of exosomes for treatment of CKD

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have developed a method of isolating biospecimens that could lead to a less costly, less invasive and more accurate way of diagnosing chronic kidney disease, or CKD.

12 Jul 2012

Physiologists, neuropathologists identify origin of cancer metastasis formation

It is not primary tumors that are responsible for the majority of cancer deaths, but rather their metastases. Physiologists and neuropathologists from the University of Zurich have now identified the origin of metastasis formation, thereby becoming the first to reveal the pathway of metastasizing intestinal cancer cells out of the blood stream. The results allow new approaches in the development of cancer therapies.

12 Jul 2012

SRI receives NIAID grant to develop HIV vaccine

The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded a grant expected to total more than $77 million from the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

12 Jul 2012

Many abusers switch to heroin due to new formulation of OxyContin

A change in the formula of the frequently abused prescription painkiller OxyContin has many abusers switching to a drug that is potentially more dangerous, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

12 Jul 2012