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Myriad signs agreement with Abbott for BRACAnalysis test

Myriad Genetics, Inc. today announced that it has signed an agreement with Abbott Laboratories, a global health care company, to conduct BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation testing on patients to be enrolled in a Phase III multi-center, multi-national clinical study of a novel drug candidate for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

27 Oct 2010

Rising alcohol prices driving the young towards illicit drug use

A latest study that spanned over two years revealed a link between alcohol prices and consumption of illicit drugs such as ecstasy. The study says that as alcohol prices have risen young people have ‘switched’ to the party drug ecstasy as an alternative.

26 Oct 2010

MDS to change name to Nordion effective November 1, 2010

MDS Inc., a leading provider of products and services to the global health science market, today announced it will be formally changing its name to Nordion Inc., effective November 1, 2010.

26 Oct 2010

UC San Diego researchers receive two federal grants for biomedical informatics

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Medicine, have received two federal grants totaling more than $25 million to develop new ways to gather, analyze, use and share vast, ever-increasing amounts of biomedical information.

25 Oct 2010

Paragon Bioservices awarded contract to assist USAMRIID in vaccine development efforts

Paragon Bioservices, a Baltimore-based CMO focused on the contract research, process development and manufacturing of biologics, announced today that it has been awarded a $4.99 million contract to assist the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases in its vaccine development efforts.

22 Oct 2010

Malaria deaths in India 13 times higher than WHO estimate, study says

"Malaria kills around 205,000 people in India each year, more than 13 times the estimate made by the World Health Organization, researchers said on Thursday," Reuters reports.

22 Oct 2010

Covidien helps sustain transportation program for low-income women needing prenatal care

One of the obstacles faced by low-income women needing quality prenatal care is a lack of transportation. The average pregnant woman needs to visit the doctor 14 times during those nine months, which can be a significant financial burden for some.

21 Oct 2010

SciDev.Net examines plans for India-S. Africa HIV vaccine research project

SciDev.Net reports on an HIV vaccine research collaboration between researchers from India and South Africa to launch by the end of 2010.

21 Oct 2010

Also in Global Health News: Foreign aid in Ethiopia; Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; Health in Myanmar; Poverty in Zambia; Rwanda's progress on MDGs; Men involved in PMTCT of HIV

Ethiopia's government has been restricting access to food and other types of foreign aid among opposition supporters, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Tuesday, Reuters reports (Malone, 10/19). The report is based on more than 200 interviews, conducted over a six-month period in 2009, of people in 53 villages across three regions of the country, according to an HRW press release (10/19).

21 Oct 2010

Opinions: Mdgs in Africa; development maintenance; U.S. efforts to eradicate polio; Global Fund commitment

Addressing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa will not only require extra spending, but also better spending, as well as the improvement of social services and priority setting, Kingsley Alu writes in a Leadership column.

20 Oct 2010

Dengue cases in Western Pacific doubled in last 10 years; WHO says disease needs higher profile

The number of dengue cases has more than doubled in the last decade in the Western Pacific, according to the WHO, BBC reports.

19 Oct 2010

Changing Our World and TSIC announce strategic global health initiative

Changing Our World and The Social Investment Consultancy (TSIC) UK today announced a wide-ranging strategic initiative to serve the needs of global health and relief institutions worldwide. This exclusive alliance creates the most comprehensive set of services available to international fundraising and philanthropic organizations.

19 Oct 2010

Sequella to develop SQ109 further with EDCTP, LMU, and TB experts in PanACEA

Sequella, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on commercializing novel drugs for treatment of life-threatening infectious diseases, announced it has signed an agreement with the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) of Munich to coordinate a European Union grant for Phase 2 clinical trials of SQ109 in adult pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in seven sites in Africa.

18 Oct 2010

MDS Nordion named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers

For the second straight year, MDS Nordion, a leading provider of products and services to the global health science market, has been named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers by Mediacorp Canada, the nation's largest publisher of employment-related periodicals and online directories.

15 Oct 2010

Scientists to monitor effectiveness of Streptococcus vaccine

Respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases kill approximately four million children each year, with most deaths occurring in developing countries. New vaccines for Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes pneumonia, and rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhoea, have proved successful in preventing the development of the diseases in clinical trials, but have yet to be used routinely in many parts of Africa.

15 Oct 2010

Reuters examines experts' concerns about global polio eradication effort

Reuters examines the global effort to eradicate polio and how failure to eliminate the disease could affect future global health undertakings.

15 Oct 2010

Center for Global Health faculty to participate in consortium to enhance medical knowledge in Nigeria

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is among the U.S. medical schools and universities involved in an initiative to invest $130 million over five years to transform African medical education and dramatically increase the number of health workers.

14 Oct 2010

News outlets report on sessions at World Health Summit

As the World Health Summit continues in Berlin, some media outlets wrote about the discussions taking place.

14 Oct 2010

GSK to expand donation of albendazole medicine to treat children with STH risk

At the launch of the World Health Organization's (WHO) first report on Neglected Tropical Diseases today, GSK announced a new five year commitment to expand the donation of its medicine albendazole to treat children at risk of intestinal worms, known as soil-transmitted helminths (STH).

14 Oct 2010

Medicago and PATH partner on development of broad coverage influenza vaccine

Medicago Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and affordable vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), today announced that it has been awarded $946,000 in funding by U.S.-based PATH pursuant to a research collaboration agreement. Medicago and PATH will work together on a broad coverage influenza vaccine based on Medicago's proprietary plant-based Virus-Like Particle (VLP) technologies for the developing world.

13 Oct 2010