Streptococcus pneumoniae News and Research

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Streptococcus pneumoniae, or Pneumococcus, is a very common bacterial infection in both industrialized and developing countries. In particular, young children and the elderly represent high-risk populations of developing pneumococcal infections. According to the WHO, the bacterium kills up to one million children under the age of five years each year worldwide. It accounts for many Bacterial Meningitis cases in adults and it is the most common cause of Bacteraemia, Pneumonia, Meningitis and Otitis media in young children.

EC approves Pfizer's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the European Commission has approved the Company's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13 (pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine, for active immunization for the prevention of vaccine-type invasive disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults aged 50 years and older.

27 Oct 2011

Pfizer's Prevnar 13: Additional data from adult clinical studies presented at 49th IDSA

Pfizer Inc. announced today that additional data from several clinical studies of Prevnar 13 (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine) conducted in adults 50 years and older will be presented during the 49th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which is being held Oct. 20-23, 2011, in Boston, Mass.

22 Oct 2011

Furiex announces publications and presentations about antibacterial drug JNJ-Q2

Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced recent and upcoming publications and presentations about the novel investigational antibacterial drug JNJ-Q2.

12 Oct 2011

Researchers discover how a novel type of antibody works against pneumococcal bacteria

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how a novel type of antibody works against pneumococcal bacteria.

23 Sep 2011

High risk of serious complications or death in children with SP-HUS

Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) caused by infection with pneumococcal bacteria leads to severe illness—with a high rate of irreversible kidney damage—in infants and young children, reports a study in the September issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

30 Aug 2011

Isconova expands Matrix M collaboration with Genocea to treat infectious diseases

Isconova AB, a leading international vaccine adjuvant company and Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a vaccine discovery and development company pioneering a new class of T cell‐based vaccines, today announced the expansion of their collaboration granting Genocea the right to use Isconova's Matrix M in vaccines targeting two additional diseases.

23 Aug 2011

FDA issues 90-day extension for Pfizer's Prevnar 13 sBLA to treat pneumonia in adults

Pfizer Inc today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a 90-day extension to the action date for the Company's supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for use of Prevnar 13, in adults aged 50 and older.

30 Jul 2011

Final Atlantis space trip may open new era of research into infectious diseases

On July 8, at approximately 11:26 a.m. EDT, the space shuttle Atlantis will streak skyward from the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A, for one last mission. While the STS-135 flight marks the end of the space shuttle's glory days, its final trip may open a new era of research into infectious diseases, thanks to space bound experiments conducted by Dr's. Cheryl Nickerson, and Roy Curtiss III, along with their colleagues at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute.

7 Jul 2011

Recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines hold promise against infectious diseases

A powerful new class of therapeutics, known as recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASV), holds great potential in the fight against fatal diseases including hepatitis B, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, AIDS and pneumonia.

30 Jun 2011

Cempra to present solithromycin Phase 1 study data at ECCMID/ICC meeting

Cempra Pharmaceuticals, a developer of differentiated antibiotics, today announced an oral presentation showing that intravenous (IV) solithromycin demonstrates excellent tolerability and a favorable pharmacokinetic profile at IV doses up to 800 mg.

7 May 2011

Furiex Pharmaceuticals to present two JNJ-Q2 antibiotic abstracts at ECCMID/ ICC congress

Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that two abstracts featuring its antibiotic candidate JNJ-Q2 will be presented at the 2011 joint meeting of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and the International Congress of Chemotherapy.

6 May 2011

Viral infection likely to encourage pneumonia spread

Bacteria that cause pneumonia and meningitis are only able to spread when individuals are infected with flu, says a scientist reporting at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Harrogate. The work could have implications for the management of influenza pandemics and could help reduce incidence of pneumococcal infections in very young children, who are more susceptible to disease.

11 Apr 2011

FDA says no cause for alarm on vaccines for meningitis and pneumonia

According to US health officials there are no reports that arouse new safety concerns over two children’s vaccines that have been suspended in Japan following the deaths of four babies.

7 Mar 2011

Sinovac submits clinical trial application for 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to China SFDA

Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products in China, announced today it submitted the application to commence clinical trials for its 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) to China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) on March 3, 2011.

3 Mar 2011

Positive results from Trius torezolid Phase 1 lung study

Trius Therapeutics, Inc. today announced results from its Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the ability of torezolid to penetrate into the lung for potential use to treat lung infections. In this study a 200 mg dose of torezolid phosphate was administered orally once-daily for three days to healthy adult volunteers. The trial achieved its primary goal of establishing the steady-state plasma pharmacokinetics and distribution of active drug into epithelial lining fluid (ELF).

28 Feb 2011

Experimental vaccine appears to protect against pneumonia

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed an experimental vaccine that appears to protect against an increasingly common and particularly deadly form of pneumococcal pneumonia. Details of the new vaccine, which was tested in an animal model, are reported in a paper published today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

22 Feb 2011

Researchers develop new pneumococcal vaccine through novel discovery approach

Pneumococcus accounts for as much as 11 percent of mortality in young children worldwide. While successful vaccines like Prevnar exist, they are expensive and only work against specific pneumococcal strains, with the risk of becoming less effective as new strains emerge.

17 Feb 2011

Pneumococcal vaccine officially rolled out in Kenya

"Kenya on Monday became the first African country to introduce a routine vaccine against pneumococcal disease, which claims the lives of more than half a million children under five each year," Deutsche Presse Agentur/The Hindu reports. The GAVI Alliance, which is supporting the vaccine's roll out, "is aiming to introduce the vaccine to 19 developing countries - including Nicaragua, Guyana, Yemen and Sierra Leone - within a year and hopes to reach more than 40 nations by 2015, depending on funding."

15 Feb 2011

Scientists use full genome sequencing to identify precise steps in molecular evolution of S. pneumoniae

Despite penicillin and the dozens of antibiotics that followed it, streptococcus bacteria have remained a major threat to health throughout the world. The reason: the superb evolutionary skills of this pathogen to rapidly alter its genetic makeup.

29 Jan 2011

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants $1.5million to Liverpool University for bacterial study

A University of Liverpool-led consortium has received $1.5million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study a bacterium that causes serious disease and epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa.

14 Jan 2011