Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Biocon, Pfizer enter global agreement to commercialize Insulin analog products

Biocon, Asia's premier biotechnology company, and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), the world's leading biopharmaceutical company, today announced that they have entered into a strategic global agreement for the worldwide commercialization of Biocon's biosimilar versions of Insulin and Insulin analog products: Recombinant Human Insulin, Glargine, Aspart and Lispro.

18 Oct 2010

Oseltamivir reduces mortality in influenza A/H5N1 patients

A study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases indicates that treatment with oseltamivir significantly reduces mortality in patients with influenza A/H5N1, or 'bird flu', even when given late in the course of illness.

15 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

New evidence supports possible link between XMRV and prostate cancer

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) has been the subject of many studies since its discovery in 2006, but conflicting reports have created an unclear picture of XMRV's role in human disease. In three recent studies published in the November 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, the evidence supports a possible link between XMRV and prostate cancer but not other links involving chronic fatigue syndrome, HIV infection, or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

13 Oct 2010

CEL-SCI receives Taiwanese IRB approval for Multikine Phase III trial in head and neck cancer

CEL-SCI Corporation announced today it has received approval from the first Taiwanese Institutional Review Board ("IRB") to begin enrollment of subjects for a Phase III clinical trial of Multikine®, the Company's flagship immunotherapy developed as a first-line standard of care in treating head and neck cancer. An IRB is a group formally designated by an institution to review and monitor research involving human subjects and to ensure protection of their rights and welfare.

13 Oct 2010

Loyola continues mandatory employee flu-vaccination policy for second straight year

The best way to prevent the spread of the flu to patients in a medical setting would be to require all health-care workers to get an annual flu shot, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

12 Oct 2010

BiondVax commences Multimeric-001 flu vaccine Phase IIa clinical study

BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd., an Israeli biopharmaceutical company at the forefront of global efforts towards the development of a Universal Influenza Vaccine, today announced that it has begun to immunize subjects in a Phase IIa clinical trial of the Multimeric-001 Universal Flu Vaccine candidate. The study will evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the Multimeric-001 vaccine.

11 Oct 2010

HHS awards Sanofi Pasteur 3-year, $56.94M egg supply contract for pandemic vaccine preparedness

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the sanofi-aventis Group, has been awarded a three-year contract for $56.94 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to maintain flocks to enable manufacturing pandemic influenza vaccine at full capacity on a year-round basis.

11 Oct 2010

Scientists proves Yersinia pestis as causative agent for Black Death epidemics in European continent

The latest tests conducted by anthropologists at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have proven that the bacteria Yersinia pestis was indeed the causative agent behind the "Black Death" that raged across Europe in the Middle Ages. The cause of the epidemic has always remained highly controversial and other pathogens were often named as possible causes, in particular for the northern European regions.

11 Oct 2010

Flu season looking 'typical,' CDC says

Flu activity in the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season is ending, has been 'typical,' the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. All three types of flu that normally circulate are present, although the H1N1 'swine flu' strain that caused last year's pandemic has replaced the seasonal H1N1 strain that circulated before 2009.

11 Oct 2010

“Black Death” of the Middle ages blamed on bacteria

Black Death or plague that killed an estimated one-third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages has been ascribed to a bacteria called Yersinia pestis by anthropologists.

10 Oct 2010

CDC issues new universal influenza vaccination recommendation for all Americans

With the influenza vaccine already available and more supply anticipated than ever before, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases convened ten of the country's leading medical and public health groups to call on all Americans to get vaccinated this season.

8 Oct 2010

Emergent BioSolutions and TLV form new joint venture to develop flu vaccines

Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a U.S.-based developer and manufacturer of vaccines and antibody therapies, today launched its Singapore operations.

8 Oct 2010

HIV/AIDS needs more funding: Report

Experts have said that just controlling HIV and AIDS would require finances to the tune of $397bn and $733bn over the next 20 years and unless more money is spent the pandemic will continue to spread. They said that funds need to increase from 2009 otherwise the infections could rise from 2.3 million a year to 3.2 million by 2031. This appeared in a report by the aids2031 financing group, headed by the Results for Development Institute in Washington DC.

8 Oct 2010

Study explains importance of identifying global pandemic risk factors to predict spread of diseases

A recent study led by Dr. Parviez Hosseini, a senior research fellow from EcoHealth Alliance (formerly Wildlife Trust), explains the importance of identifying global pandemic risk factors as early as possible, in order to predict the spread of diseases like H1N1 "swine" flu and SARS. "Predictive Power of Air Travel and Socio-Economic data for Early Pandemic Spread," recently published in the scientific publication PLoS ONE, examines the interplay among travel, trade, and national healthcare resources in predicting the emergence and spread of H1N1 and other viruses.

7 Oct 2010

Synthetic Genomics, JCVI announce formation of new company to develop next generation vaccines

The company Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI) and the not-for-profit research organization, the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) today announced the formation of a new company, Synthetic Genomics Vaccines Inc. (SGVI).

7 Oct 2010

Walgreens September sales increases 5.3% to $5.64 billion

Walgreens had September sales of $5.64 billion, an increase of 5.3 percent from $5.36 billion for the same month in fiscal 2010. Duane Reade stores, acquired in April 2010, contributed 2.8 percentage points to the total sales increase for the month.

5 Oct 2010

Maternal influenza vaccination prevents flu in infants

Babies whose mothers who receive influenza vaccines while pregnant appear less likely to be infected with flu or hospitalized for respiratory illnesses in their first six months of life, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the February 2011 print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Oct 2010

Medicago announces official groundbreaking ceremony for U.S. plant-based commercial grade vaccine facility

Medicago U.S.A. Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of 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 company executives, along with U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) and U.S. Congressman David Price (D-NC), are holding an official groundbreaking ceremony this morning for its U.S. plant-based commercial grade vaccine facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

1 Oct 2010

GHI won't compromise PEPFAR, Global AIDS Coordinator says at House Foreign Affairs' Committee hearing

During a House Committee on Foreign Affairs' hearing on the future of PEPFAR Wednesday, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby assured lawmakers that the decision by President Barack Obama to make PEPFAR part of the president's Global Health Initiative (GHI) would not compromise "the widely praised plan," CQ HealthBeat reports.

1 Oct 2010

Pandemic News and Research

Further Reading

Biocon, Pfizer enter global agreement to commercialize Insulin analog products

Oseltamivir reduces mortality in influenza A/H5N1 patients

Medicago and PATH partner on development of broad coverage influenza vaccine

New evidence supports possible link between XMRV and prostate cancer

CEL-SCI receives Taiwanese IRB approval for Multikine Phase III trial in head and neck cancer

Loyola continues mandatory employee flu-vaccination policy for second straight year

BiondVax commences Multimeric-001 flu vaccine Phase IIa clinical study

HHS awards Sanofi Pasteur 3-year, $56.94M egg supply contract for pandemic vaccine preparedness

Scientists proves Yersinia pestis as causative agent for Black Death epidemics in European continent

Flu season looking 'typical,' CDC says

“Black Death” of the Middle ages blamed on bacteria

CDC issues new universal influenza vaccination recommendation for all Americans

Emergent BioSolutions and TLV form new joint venture to develop flu vaccines

HIV/AIDS needs more funding: Report

Study explains importance of identifying global pandemic risk factors to predict spread of diseases

Synthetic Genomics, JCVI announce formation of new company to develop next generation vaccines

Walgreens September sales increases 5.3% to $5.64 billion

Maternal influenza vaccination prevents flu in infants

Medicago announces official groundbreaking ceremony for U.S. plant-based commercial grade vaccine facility

GHI won't compromise PEPFAR, Global AIDS Coordinator says at House Foreign Affairs' Committee hearing

Best practices - optimize qPCR processes for pathogen detection eBook

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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