Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Covidien second quarter net sales up 10% to $2.80 billion

Covidien plc today reported results for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 (January - March 2011). Net sales of $2.80 billion increased 10% from the $2.55 billion reported in the second quarter a year ago. Foreign exchange rate movement added approximately two percentage points to the quarterly sales growth rate.

21 Apr 2011

Report: Prescription drug spending growth slows

Americans and their insurers spent $307.4 billion on prescription drugs in 2010, up just 2.3 percent from the previous year, according to data released Tuesday by IMS Health Inc.

21 Apr 2011

Shanghai Pharmaceutical and Pfizer enter MOU to pursue potential business opportunities

Shanghai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Pfizer Inc. today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the companies to jointly pursue potential business opportunities in China.

21 Apr 2011

CMS unveils 2012 hospital Medicare payment proposal

The American Hospital Association responded by saying it was "deeply disappointed" by the proposal, which would cut acute-care hospital payments in the coming year.

21 Apr 2011

Gilead, MicroDose enter collaboration for inhalable small molecule antiviral fusion inhibitor MDT-637

Gilead Sciences, Inc. and MicroDose Therapeutx, Inc. today announced that the companies have entered into an exclusive worldwide license and collaboration agreement for the development and commercialization of MDT-637, MicroDose's inhalable small molecule antiviral fusion inhibitor for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

20 Apr 2011

Spanish tool measures infant pain rapidly and simply

It turns out to be difficult to find out exactly how much a child who cannot yet speak suffers after a surgical operation. Researchers at the University Hospital of La Paz, in Madrid, have validated the 'Llanto' scale, the first, and only, tool in Spanish which measures infant pain rapidly and simply.

20 Apr 2011

Furiex acquires full rights to JNJ-Q2, a novel broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone antibiotic

Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has acquired full exclusive license rights to develop and commercialize the compound JNJ-Q2 under its existing development and license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V.. Furiex acquired these rights as a result of Janssen's decision not to exercise its option under the agreement that gave Janssen the opportunity to continue development of JNJ-Q2.

20 Apr 2011

Forest Labs fourth quarter net sales increase 9.7% to $1,091.9 million

Forest Laboratories, Inc., an international pharmaceutical manufacturer and marketer, announced that reported earnings per share equaled $1.12 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

19 Apr 2011

BIDMC: Physicians need to create healthy distance between work, home online identities

With ubiquitous social media sites like Facebook and Twitter blurring private and professional lines, there is an increasing need for physicians to create a healthy distance between their work and home online identities, two Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center physicians assert.

19 Apr 2011

Countries agree to draft framework on virus sharing, WHO says

After almost four years of negotiations, the WHO on Saturday announced it had reached an agreement on sharing flu virus samples, Agence-France Presse reports.

19 Apr 2011

Transgene, Inovio and ChronTech collaborate for novel vaccine phase I trial in HCV

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today it has signed a collaboration agreement with Transgene S.A. and ChronTech Pharma AB to evaluate a novel therapeutic vaccination strategy against genotype 1 hepatitis C virus in a phase I clinical study.

18 Apr 2011

Positive results from Nabriva's BC-3781 Phase II trial in ABSSSI

Nabriva Therapeutics today announced the successful results of a Phase II clinical trial of BC-3781 in acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections.

18 Apr 2011

Measles alert issued in Tasmania

Tasmanian health authorities have issued an alert over a measles case. They issued a statement revealing that a woman who travelled to Devonport on the Spirit of Tasmania on Monday has been diagnosed with the infectious disease. She was one of four people to contract measles while on board an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne.

17 Apr 2011

Drug resistant bug plaguing the meat industry: Study

It has been found that nearly half of the meat and poultry (47 percent) sold in U.S. grocery stores is contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus (“Staph”), a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, and this bacteria is resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics in more than half (52 percent) of contaminated samples. This comes from a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) published this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

17 Apr 2011

Legionnaire’s bug in Playboy mansion hot tub

Health officials have been able to trace the cause of the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease after a two-month investigation. They found the bug in the hot tub of the Playboy mansion.

17 Apr 2011

Virus-sharing draft agreement very close; U.S. yet to formally approve, Reuters reports

A draft agreement that would ensure countries would share virus samples in exchange for access to affordable vaccines derived from such samples in the event of a pandemic is nearly complete, senior diplomats told Reuters on Thursday.

16 Apr 2011

Hospital patients with AUDs are at increased risk of developing HAIs: Study

Hospital patients with alcohol use disorders are at an increased risk of developing healthcare-associated infections, which affect 1.7 million patients annually in the United States. HAIs are infections that patients acquire during their hospitalization and that were not present at the time of admission to the hospital.

16 Apr 2011

Patients with COPD can benefit from ICS use

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who are hospitalized for pneumonia and treated with inhaled corticosteroids have decreased mortality when compared to those who are not treated with ICS, according to a retrospective analysis of almost 16,000 COPD patients admitted to VA hospitals.

15 Apr 2011

WHO group hopes to have virus-sharing draft agreement finalized by Friday

Countries are narrowing in on a "deal to speed up their response to the next flu pandemic by sharing virus samples in return for access to affordable vaccines," co-chairs of a WHO working group told reporters on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

15 Apr 2011

Study finds 47% of meat and poultry samples contaminated with S. aureus

Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, are present in meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates, according to a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

15 Apr 2011