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New VLP vaccine candidate produced for H7N9 virus

Medicago Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles, today announced that it has successfully produced a new VLP vaccine candidate for the H7N9 virus that is responsible for the current influenza outbreak in China.

8 May 2013

TSRI, Janssen to collaborate on focused research projects in infectious disease area

The Scripps Research Institute today announced a five-year agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to collaborate on focused research projects in the infectious disease area, with the initial project targeting the influenza virus.

8 May 2013

New NTD Special Envoys to focus on eliminating NTD primarily on LAC region

Today, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, a major initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, announced His Excellency, President Alvaro Arz- Irigoyen of Guatemala (1996-2000), His Excellency, President Ricardo Lagos Escobar of Chile (2000-2006) and former Pan American Health Organization Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago as the organization's newest Neglected Tropical Disease Special Envoys.

8 May 2013

Cubist receives Fast Track designation from FDA for late-stage antibiotic candidate

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted the Company's late-stage antibiotic candidate ceftolozane/tazobactam (CXA-201) Fast Track status in the previously granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product indications, Hospital-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia/Ventilator-Associated Bacterial Pneumonia and Complicated Urinary Tract Infections.

8 May 2013

Study says influenza immunization is safe in children with IBD

Influenza immunization rates in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are low despite its safety according to a new study by researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), and the University of Ottawa.

7 May 2013

Primary health care for patients with urinary tract infections can save nearly $4 billion in ER visits

Giving patients better access to primary health care could save nearly $4 billion a year in unnecessary emergency room visits for a single common complaint - urinary tract infections - according to a study by the Vattikuti Urology Institute at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

7 May 2013

Study provides additional data on why RV144 vaccine failed to protect more people

Continuing analysis of an HIV vaccine trial undertaken in Thailand is yielding additional information about how immune responses were triggered and why the vaccine did not protect more people.

7 May 2013

TSRI announces five-year agreement with Janssen to research on influenza virus

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) today announced a five-year agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Janssen) to collaborate on focused research projects in the infectious disease area, with the initial project targeting the influenza virus.

7 May 2013

Scientists uncover unknown virulence factor in respiratory pathogen

To infect its host, the respiratory pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa takes an ordinary protein usually involved in making other proteins and adds three small molecules to turn it into a key for gaining access to human cells.

7 May 2013

Aeras receives grant to support the development of vaccines against TB, HIV and malaria

Aeras, a nonprofit biotech advancing TB vaccines for the world, the University of Oxford and Okairos, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in T-cell vaccines, today announced a $2.9 million grant to Aeras in support of a collaboration among the three parties to support the development of vaccines against tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.

7 May 2013

Health providers with hepatitis B are covered by disability law

The U.S. Department of Justice recently declared in a legal settlement that hepatitis B patients are protected by federal disability law.

7 May 2013

New technology can help save millions of infant lives

Thanks to new federal funding, low-cost, easily accessible technology invented by a Simon Fraser University engineering professor and his graduate students is closer to helping to save millions of infant lives.

6 May 2013

Changing toothbrush will not prevent sore throat

Word on the street has it you should replace your toothbrush after suffering from a cold, the flu or a bout of strep throat. That may not be necessary - at least when it comes to sore throats, according to a study to be presented Saturday, May 4, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC.

6 May 2013

Oral drops provide a safe and effective alternative for allergy sufferers

Allergy shots are commonly used to treat children with severe environmental allergies and asthma, but under-the-tongue drops may offer yet another beneficial - and stick-free - option for pediatric allergy sufferers, according to a Johns Hopkins Children's Center review of existing scientific evidence.

6 May 2013

Viewpoints: Liberals refuse to acknowledge evidence of Oregon Medicaid study; Politics is roiling science in emergency contraception decisions

A familiar critique of liberal governance is that the results always matter less than its grand social ambitions. The latest evidence of this truth comes in the reaction to disappointing new findings from one of the most important public-policy experiments since the 1970s. A team of varsity health economists, mostly at Harvard and MIT, is studying the relationship between health outcomes and health insurance delivered by Medicaid (5/2).

4 May 2013

FDA approves sNDA for SUSTIVA for treatment of HIV-1 infected pediatric patients

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a supplemental new drug application for SUSTIVA (efavirenz), including dosing recommendations for HIV-1 infected pediatric patients three months to three years old and weighing at least 3.5 kg.

4 May 2013

Researchers study how malaria mosquitoes find their host

Malaria mosquitoes go to work cautiously before landing on human skin and biting. Just before a mosquito lands, it reacts to both odours and heat given off by the human body.

4 May 2013

Study identifies the vector that transmitted malaria from apes to humans

In 2010, a study revealed that the main agent of malaria in humans, called Plasmodium falciparum, arose from the gorilla. Today, the vector which transmitted the parasite from apes to humans has just been identified.

3 May 2013

Public-private partnerships can help advance global health goals

"Three people die every minute from tuberculosis -- a treatable and largely preventable disease. Resistant forms continue to thrive, and increased travel makes the global threat very real. We face a public health emergency," Vince Forlenza, chair, CEO, and president of the medical technology firm Becton, Dickinson and Company, writes in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.

3 May 2013

Scientists warn of H7N9 risks as number of cases, deaths continue to rise

"A new strain of bird flu that is causing a deadly outbreak among people in China is a threat to world health and should be taken seriously, scientists said on Wednesday," Reuters reports (Kelland, 5/1).

3 May 2013