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Will 'old faithful' tuberculosis BCG vaccine work against COVID?

All over the world, except in China, the place where it all began, the COVID-19 pandemic is making its relentless way through the population. So far, it has caused nearly 34,000 deaths – and the situation in the US is still worsening with over 142,000 cases and 2,489 deaths. In Australia, the number of cases has climbed to 4,093, with 16 fatalities.

29 Mar 2020

FDA approves immune-modulating therapy for treatment of multiple sclerosis

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved ozanimod, an immune-modulating therapy invented at Scripps Research, for the treatment of adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.

26 Mar 2020

Study shows legal marijuana products too strong for pain relief

Most legal marijuana products supplied to medical dispensaries are stronger than recommended for treatment of chronic pain.

26 Mar 2020

Study contradicts theory that daily aspirin prevents dementia symptoms

Scientists have disproven the theory that taking a low dose of daily aspirin reduces cognitive symptoms of dementia.

25 Mar 2020

Why hoarding of hydroxychloroquine needs to stop

A family of old antimalarial drugs — including one that some patients rely on to treat their lupus or rheumatoid arthritis — is becoming harder to get in the United States, pharmacists say, partly because of remarks President Donald Trump has made, highlighting the drugs as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

25 Mar 2020

Senators who led pharma-friendly patent reform also prime targets for pharma cash

Early last year, as lawmakers vowed to curb rising drug prices, Sen. Thom Tillis was named chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on intellectual property rights, a committee that had not met since 2007.

24 Mar 2020

Huge WHO trial of COVID-19 therapies begins

As the world reels from the devastating impact and the looming threat of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, researchers around the globe are racing to find a cure that will reduce symptom severity and reverse the course of the disease, freeing up more hospital space and making it possible to treat more of the severely affected cases.

24 Mar 2020

The COVID-19 vaccine pipeline

Major nations are in a race to make an effective vaccine that could help treat the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19. As hundreds of thousands are infected across the world and over sixteen thousand killed, the pandemic shows no signs of relenting.

23 Mar 2020

New drug can alleviate the side effects of tricyclic antidepressants

About one in five Danes are affected by depression at some point in their lives. The severe depressions may be treated with the so-called 'tricyclic antidepressants', an antidepressant drug that is more effective than the drugs used for mild and moderate depressions.

22 Mar 2020

Statins may protect against heart damage caused by breast cancer therapies

Statins are widely used to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease and related deaths, but can they also help guard against heart damage caused by certain breast cancer therapies?

19 Mar 2020

Ibuprofen could increase risk of coronavirus complications

The UK’s National Health Service says that people who have COVID-19 and are self-quarantined should rest and drink plenty of fluids. So far, so good. However, it goes on to advise that they take paracetamol or ibuprofen to keep down fever and pain.

17 Mar 2020

$Acid reflux drugs may lead to increased risk of fractures in children$

Acid reflux drugs may lead to increased risk of fractures in children

Proton pump inhibitors - a widely used class of drugs used to treat acid reflux and related symptoms - may lead to an increased risk of fractures in children and adolescents, reports a study in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.

17 Mar 2020

mRNA vaccine against novel coronavirus goes on a trial in Seattle

A clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the novel coronavirus commenced this Monday in the U.S.. If successful, this could mean an end to the current global pandemic of COVID-19 infections, feel experts.

16 Mar 2020

Patients prescribed opioids after dental extraction report higher levels of pain

The use of opioids to soothe the pain of a pulled tooth could be drastically reduced or eliminated altogether from dentistry, say University of Michigan researchers.

13 Mar 2020

Could rushing a coronavirus vaccine cause more harm?

Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that is rapidly spreading worldwide, scientists are becoming more concerned that rushing vaccine production to prevent the infection may do more harm than good to patients.

12 Mar 2020

Virtual reality becomes a drug design tool

A new study published in March 2020 in the journal PLOS ONE shows the use of virtual reality (VR) as a powerful tool to create next-generation therapeutics. The focus is on the ability of VR to simulate the way commonly used drugs act on the cells at the molecular level, which enables innovation to improve the mechanism of action or to use alternate mechanisms.

11 Mar 2020

Popular painkiller may have more significant effects on the liver than expected

The popular painkiller ibuprofen may have more significant effects on the liver than previously thought, according to new research from the University of California, Davis.

11 Mar 2020

City dwellers, children and seniors take more antibiotics

City dwellers take more antibiotics than people in rural areas; children and the elderly use them more often than middle-aged people; the use of antibiotics decreases as education increases, but only in rich countries: These are three of the more striking trends identified by researchers of the NRW Forschungskolleg "One Health and Urban Transformation" at the University of Bonn in a recent study.

11 Mar 2020

Heart Association puts halt to Bayer’s giant displays of baby aspirin

The large red-and-white bins at Walmart pharmacies across the country read, in bold all-caps type: "Approximately every 40 seconds an American will have a heart attack."

10 Mar 2020

How effective is Gabapentin in alcohol use disorder?

A new study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine in March 2020 reports the striking efficacy of the drug gabapentin in helping people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) with their alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

9 Mar 2020