Immunodeficiency News and Research

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Immunodeficiency (or immune deficiency) is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious disease is compromised or entirely absent.

ARCA receives approval to begin enrollment of first therapeutic trial with GeoVax vaccine

GeoVax Labs, Inc., a biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines, announced today The AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta has received approval to begin enrollment of the first therapeutic trial ever conducted using a promising HIV vaccine candidate from GeoVax, Inc.

28 May 2010

SCID added to the core panel of 29 genetic disorders

On May 21, 2010, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services announced the addition of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency -- commonly known as bubble boy disease -- to the core panel of 29 genetic disorders -- as part of her recommendation to adopt the national Recommended Uniform Screening Panel.

26 May 2010

Research on new types of anti-HIV drugs presented at International Microbicides Conference

Researchers testing a vaginal microbicide based on a new type of anti-HIV drug found it provided monkeys significant protection against infection with a virus similar to HIV, according to a study reported at the International Microbicides Conference in Pittsburgh today.

24 May 2010

GeoVax Labs spotlighted on interactive map posted on the website of Inc. magazine

GeoVax Labs, Inc., a biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines, is spotlighted on an interactive map posted on the website of Inc. magazine.

20 May 2010

Underwriters exercise overallotment option to purchase additional 480,000 shares in Pharmasset offering

Pharmasset, Inc. announced today the underwriters of its recent stock offering have exercised their option to purchase an additional 480,000 shares of common stock. The net proceeds to Pharmasset, Inc., after deducting the underwriting discount, from the sale of these additional shares are expected to be approximately $13.2 million.

18 May 2010

U.S. healthcare practitioners can resume use of Rotarix, says FDA

GlaxoSmithKline announced that the Food and Drug Administration has determined that U.S. healthcare practitioners can resume the use of Rotarix (Rotavirus Vaccine, Live, Oral), effective immediately. This action supersedes the FDA's recommendation from March 22, 2010 and reflects the agency's assessment that the presence of porcine circovirus type 1 in the vaccine poses no safety risk.

15 May 2010

Pharmasset prices underwritten public offering of common stock

Pharmasset, Inc. announced today the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,200,000 shares of its common stock at an offering price of $29.00 per share. Pharmasset expects to receive net proceeds, after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses, of approximately $87.9 million.

14 May 2010

HIV disease tends to progress at faster rate in infected individuals who consume more alcoholic drinks

HIV disease tends to progress at a faster rate in infected individuals who consume two or more alcoholic drinks a day, according to an important new paper in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

14 May 2010

Chimerix commences first-in-human study of CMX157 for HIV

Chimerix, Inc., a biotechnology company developing orally-available antiviral therapeutics, announced the commencement of a first-in-human study of CMX157, a novel lipid conjugate of the nucleotide tenofovir with in vitro activity against both tenofovir-sensitive and tenofovir-resistant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). CMX157 has the potential to increase efficacy and decrease toxicity as compared to tenofovir, and may enable the creation of new 'one pill, once-a-day', fixed-dose combination regimens for the treatment of HIV infection.

14 May 2010

Progenics Pharmaceuticals reports net loss of $18.6M in first-quarter 2010

Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced its results of operations for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

11 May 2010

CVS calls on FDA to suspend use of contaminated rotavirus vaccines

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened a panel of experts to review recent findings that rotavirus vaccines given to infants in the U.S., Rotateq, produced by Merck Pharmaceuticals and Rotarix produced by GlaxoSmithKline, are contaminated with DNA from pig viruses PCV1 and PCV2. On March 22nd the FDA Commissioner asked doctors to suspend use of the Rotarix vaccine due to the contamination. Upon additional testing, Rotateq was also found to be contaminated.

10 May 2010

GSK participates in FDA advisory committee's rotavirus vaccine meeting

GlaxoSmithKline today participated in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee meeting convened to discuss recent findings of porcine circovirus (PCV) in rotavirus vaccines. Although the committee did not issue any formal recommendations, members widely acknowledged that the benefits of vaccinating infants worldwide against rotavirus disease clearly outweigh the theoretical risks associated with the presence of porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV-1) in the vaccines.

10 May 2010

Ardea Biosciences reports lower net loss of $10.1M for first-quarter 2010

Ardea Biosciences, Inc. a biotechnology company focused on the development of small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of gout, cancer and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), reported recent accomplishments and financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010.

7 May 2010

ETH Zurich researchers discover HIV transmission chains

Since the emergence of the first AIDS cases in the early 1980s, an infectious wave has spread over Switzerland. Every year, several hundred people are infected with the HI-virus which triggers the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, AIDS. Does the infection spread according to a particular pattern? Do these patterns vary among the transmission groups such as drug addicts, homosexual or heterosexual persons?

7 May 2010

Pharmasset reports net loss of $16.1 million for fiscal second-quarter 2010

Pharmasset, Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing novel drugs to treat viral infections, today reported financial results and operational highlights for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

6 May 2010

GeoVax Labs reports net loss of $690,789 for first-quarter 2010

GeoVax Labs, Inc., a biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines, today announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2010.

6 May 2010

Aethlon Medical plans to initiate patient recruitment for cancer immunotherapy study

Aethlon Medical, Inc., the pioneer in developing therapeutic filtration devices to address infectious disease and cancer, announced today that it plans to initiate patient recruitment for a cancer immunotherapy study by year end. The pilot study seeks to demonstrate an improved immune function in cancer patients as a result of the Aethlon Hemopurifier removing tumor-secreted exosomes from the circulatory system.

4 May 2010

Clinical development of RG7128 is on track: Pharmasset

Pharmasset, Inc., in response to certain inaccuracies in an article published by PharmaWire on May 3, 2010 about its development program for treatment of hepatitis C virus in collaboration with Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, stated today that the development of RG7128 is on track, and that no safety or other concerns have delayed the program.

4 May 2010

UCLM researcher explores employment status of HIV-positive individuals in Spain

Juan Oliva, a researcher at the University of Castilla-La Mancha explores the relationship between the employment status of Human Immunodeficiency Virus -positive individuals and socioeconomic characteristics in Spain between 2001 and 2004. The study finds that gender is a "statistically significant" variable when predicting employment status.

4 May 2010

DOE Argonne National Laboratory to upgrade to Advanced Photon Source

Advances in energy conservation, better materials for frontier technologies and new economic engines, and breakthroughs in understanding diseases: These are just a few of the potential discoveries, both basic and applied, to be enabled by an upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. DOE today announced formal approval for conceptual design of the APS upgrade, the first in a series of major milestones that the project must meet under DOE's project management regimen.

4 May 2010