Drugs News and Research

RSS

Superbugs and antibiotic resistance

Health experts come together today (Thursday) to warn that a new form of superbug that gives bacteria the power to resist virtually all known antibiotics is spreading quickly, posing a global health disaster. It is called New Delhi metallobeta-lactamase, or NDM-1 for short. This enzyme destroys carbapenems, an important group of antibiotics used for difficult infections in hospitals, and has been found in a wide variety of bacterial types. British researchers last August reported that infections involving NDM-1 had been found in patients in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Britain.

6 Apr 2011

Avila announces successful completion of AVL-292 Phase 1a clinical studies for B-cell cancers

Avila Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel targeted covalent drugs, today announced that it has successfully completed two Phase 1a clinical studies for AVL-292, its orally-available, selective inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk).

6 Apr 2011

Strawberries may slow progression of precancerous lesions in the esophagus

Freeze-dried strawberries may be an alternative to drugs for the prevention of esophageal cancer, according to research presented at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held here April 2-6.

6 Apr 2011

BioWa, OBT enter license agreement to advance ADCC programs

BioWa, Inc. and Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd today announced that they have entered into a license agreement to provide OBT with access to BioWa's patented POTELLIGENT Technology platform for the development of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity enhanced antibodies.

6 Apr 2011

Optimer, Cubist sign deal to market DIFICID for CDI treatment in the U.S.

Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the signing of an exclusive two-year co-promotion agreement to market DIFICID, in the United States.

6 Apr 2011

FDA to discuss 2008 immunogenicity directives with European industry experts at Pharma IQ

This May, Joao Pedras-Vasconcelos, Visiting Associate, Therapeutic Proteins CBER from FDA will meet with European industry experts at Pharma IQ's to discuss FDA directives on immunogenicity introduced in 2008.

6 Apr 2011

Results of study evaluating potential inhibitory effects of PPIs on Plavix presented at ACC 2011

Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. announced the presentation of new study results, which evaluated the potential inhibitory effects of certain proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) on Plavix (clopidogrel bisulfate). The results showed that in healthy subjects, clopidogrel's active metabolite and inhibition of platelet function were reduced less by the co-administration of clopidogrel with dexlansoprazole or lansoprazole, rather than esomeprazole.

6 Apr 2011

FDA reports dramatic increase in adverse drug events

In recent years, U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports of adverse events related to drugs have increased dramatically.

6 Apr 2011

AMPK suppression and SREBP activation are root cause of fatty liver and hyperlipidemia in type 2 diabetes

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, including Yu Li, PhD, and other colleagues, have demonstrated that a nutrient sensing pathway is involved in the disruption of cellular lipid homeostasis in obese and insulin resistant mice fed a diet high in fat and sucrose.

6 Apr 2011

Experts welcome World Health Day on antibiotic resistance as timely

The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) welcomes the focus on drug resistance for this year’s World Health Day as it is an issue that the Society has been proactively working on for the past 25 years.

6 Apr 2011

Keryx KRX-0401 data in colorectal cancer, multiple myeloma presented at AACR meeting

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that two posters on KRX-0401 were presented at the 102nd annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research currently ongoing at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Perifosine, the Company's novel, potentially first-in-class, oral anti-cancer agent that inhibits Akt activation in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway, is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials for refractory advanced colorectal cancer and multiple myeloma.

6 Apr 2011

ABAM accredites 10 new addiction training programs for physicians

The American Board of Addiction Medicine Foundation today accredited 10 training programs, the nation's first post-graduate addiction medicine residencies for physicians. The Foundation also released its Program Requirements and Curriculum Objectives, national guidelines for addiction medicine residencies.

6 Apr 2011

Comprehensive book on chronic pain and addiction

Up to date and comprehensive, this book is relevant to all professionals engaged in the care of patients with chronic pain or addiction and all others interested in these contemporary issues, particularly non-clinicians seeking clarity in the controversy over the best approach to patients with chronic pain.

6 Apr 2011

Study finds marked increases in teen use of marijuana and Ecstasy

Following a decade of steady declines, a new national study released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation indicates that teen drug and alcohol use is headed in the wrong direction, with marked increases in teen use of marijuana and Ecstasy over the past three years.

6 Apr 2011

Nanotechnology can help better assess whether cancer drugs hit their targets

A Purdue University biochemist has demonstrated a process using nanotechnology to better assess whether cancer drugs hit their targets, which may help reduce drug side effects.

6 Apr 2011

Avila's PI3Kα inhibitor preclinical study data presented at AACR meeting

Avila Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel targeted covalent drugs, today presented results of preclinical studies on its novel Phosphoinositide 3-kinase alpha inhibitor at the American Association for Cancer Research 102nd Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

6 Apr 2011

NYC scientists receive $420,000 S.L.E. Lupus Foundation grant for new research

New York City's S.L.E. Lupus Foundation is pleased to name the latest recipients of its Career Development and Basic Science Fellowships: Josephine Isgro, MD of Hospital for Special Surgery, Dipyaman Ganguly, PhD of Columbia University Medical Center, and Yi Yan, PhD of the Feinstein Institute at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital.

6 Apr 2011

TZDs might serve as new agents for addiction treatment

Thiazolidinediones are a class of medications that are commonly prescribed to treat type-2 diabetes, while fibrates are a structurally-related class of medications that are prescribed to modulate lipid levels in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients to help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

6 Apr 2011

Device to treat resistant hypertension lowers blood pressure by 33 points

A device designed to treat people with resistant hypertension helped lower blood pressure by 33 points, a substantial drop that would otherwise require patients to take an additional three or four drugs, on top of this subgroup's usual regimen of up to five drugs, to control their difficult-to-treat condition.

6 Apr 2011

Scientists develop new method to identify factors that suppress cancer gene expression

Tumor suppressor genes normally control the growth of cells, but cancer can spring up when these genes are silenced by certain chemical reactions that modify chromosomes.

6 Apr 2011