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Combating antibiotic resistance: an interview with Ron Najafi, CEO NovaBay Pharmaceuticals

Approximately 80 years ago the first antibiotic was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming, for which he was justifiably awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.

2 Aug 2013

Prevention against EEE and West Nile virus is within everyone's control

Every year reported cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis and the West Nile virus surface in communities around the country, raising concerns and questions about mosquito borne-illnesses. Despite reports that children and the elderly are at greatest risk, anyone can be stricken by these viruses. But prevention is within everyone's control.

1 Aug 2013

Animal model of human norovirus lays groundwork for developing antiviral drug treatment

An animal model of the human norovirus created at the University of Michigan Health System lays the groundwork for understanding the biology of the pesky virus and developing antiviral drug treatment.

23 Jul 2013

Teduglutide offers relief for patients with short-bowel syndrome

A new drug, teduglutide, offers significant relief for patients with short-bowel syndrome intestinal failure who are reliant on intravenous nutrition, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

19 Jul 2013

TGA of Australia approves Vertex Pharmaceuticals' KALYDECO for cystic fibrosis

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced that the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia has approved KALYDECO (ivacaftor) for people with cystic fibrosis ages 6 and older who have at least one copy of the G551D mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene.

10 Jul 2013

First broad-spectrum drugs to combat human rhinoviruses

Scientists are reporting progress in the search for the first broad-spectrum drugs to combat human rhinoviruses (HRVs), which cause humanity's most common infectious diseases.

27 Jun 2013

Study: Vitamin C may reduce bronchoconstriction caused by exercise

Vitamin C may substantially reduce bronchoconstriction caused by exercise, says Dr. Harri Hemila from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Hemila's meta-analysis "Vitamin C may alleviate exercise-induced bronchoconstriction" was published in BMJ Open (7 June, 2013)

12 Jun 2013

Bringing classroom ventilation may reduce student absences due to illness, say researchers

If you suspect that opening windows to let in fresh air might be good for you, a new study by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has confirmed your hunch.

6 Jun 2013

Allergic rhinitis treatments: an interview with Dr Dermot Ryan, GP and allergy expert

Allergic rhinitis is most commonly recognized as hay fever in the United Kingdom and it is due to the impact of an allergen, in the case of hay fever a pollen, setting off an inflammatory response in the lungs, causing typical symptoms...

5 Jun 2013

Alios begins oral dosing of ALS-8176 in Phase 1 clinical trial for RSV infection

Alios BioPharma, Inc. today announced that it has begun oral dosing of ALS-8176 in a Phase 1 clinical trial. ALS-8176 is a structurally novel, anti-respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) nucleoside analog that is being developed for the treatment of acute RSV infection.

31 May 2013

Viewpoints: The threat from 'contagion exhaustion;' An economist sees humor in hospital pricing

There has been a flurry of recent attention over two novel infectious agents: the first, a strain of avian influenza virus (H7N9) in China that is causing severe respiratory disease and other serious health complications in people; the second, a coronavirus, first reported last year in the Middle East, that has brought a crop of new infections.

13 May 2013

Researchers successfully test new anti-cocaine vaccine in primates

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have successfully tested their novel anti-cocaine vaccine in primates, bringing them closer to launching human clinical trials.

13 May 2013

AstraZeneca reports fostamatinib Phase 3 study results for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

AstraZeneca today announced top-line results of OSKIRA-1, a Phase 3 study to assess the efficacy and safety of fostamatinib, the first oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor in development for rheumatoid arthritis.

6 Apr 2013

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals receives preliminary comment letter from FDA on peramivir

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it received a preliminary comment letter from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that outlines a pathway by which BioCryst could file a New Drug Application seeking regulatory approval of intravenous (i.v.) peramivir.

1 Apr 2013

Cases of new coronavirus rises to 17, number of deaths is 11

"The deadly and mysterious coronavirus that first appeared in Saudi Arabia last year has claimed two more victims, bringing the official death toll to 11," and the case count to 17, the Los Angeles Times' "Booster Shots" blog reports.

28 Mar 2013

Findings provide structural basis for development of drugs to fight enterovirus 71 infection

New research findings may help scientists design drugs to treat a virus infection that causes potentially fatal brain swelling and paralysis in children.

22 Mar 2013

Some public health experts concerned over Saudi Arabia's response to SARS-like virus

"A SARS-like virus has infected 15 people, nine of whom have died, mostly in Saudi Arabia, worrying some Western scientists who question whether the kingdom is sharing enough critical data on the outbreak," "[b]ut a top Saudi Arabia health official rejected those complaints on Tuesday and said the virus posed a low risk of pandemic," the Wall Street Journal reports.

21 Mar 2013

GP consultations: an interview with Associate Professor Helena Britt, University of Sydney

Well it hasn’t varied at all over the last 15 years, which I find pretty amazing because we’ve been through a lot of changes in general practice. Yet, the average length of consultation, as measured from a start to finish time, in a sample of 40,000 consultations in Australia in a year, shows that the average is 15 minutes and the median is 13 minutes.

4 Mar 2013

Healthy adults with shorter telomere length more likely to develop upper respiratory infection

Among healthy adults who were administered a cold virus, those with shorter telomere length (a structure at the end of a chromosome) in certain cells were more likely to develop experimentally-induced upper respiratory infection than participants with longer telomeres, according to results of preliminary research published in the February 20 issue of JAMA.

20 Feb 2013

New coronavirus could potentially be treated with immunotherapy

The new coronavirus that has emerged in the Middle East is well-adapted to infecting humans but could potentially be treated with immunotherapy, according to a study to be published on February 19 in mBio-, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.