Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Groundbreaking ceremony for Ravensburg Vetter West facility

A groundbreaking ceremony was held today for Vetter's newest facility, Ravensburg Vetter West. Vetter, a specialist in aseptically pre-filled drug-delivery systems, will build a state-of-the-art high bay warehouse for cold-storage and room-temperature goods. Space will also be dedicated for automatic and manual visual inspection as well as for stability chambers designed to the highest standards.

19 Jun 2010

Model Formulary for Children provides information on how to use over 240 essential medicines

The first ever WHO Model Formulary for Children released by the WHO provides information on how to use over 240 essential medicines for treating illness and disease in children from 0 to 12 years of age. This means that for the first time medical practitioners worldwide have access to standardized information on the recommended use, dosage, adverse effects, and contraindications of these medicines for use in children.

18 Jun 2010

Yearlong collaborative partnership launched to reduce hospital readmissions due to heart failure

More than 5 million individuals in the United States suffer from chronic heart failure, making it one of the most common reasons for hospitalizations and readmissions. To address this costly issue, the New Jersey Hospital Association's Institute for Quality and Patient Safety this week launched a yearlong collaborative partnership to reduce hospital readmissions due to heart failure and improve the quality of healthcare in New Jersey.

18 Jun 2010

Laboratory mouse study shows cold sensing neural circuits develop well after birth

Cold sensing neural circuits in newborn mice take around two weeks to become fully active, according to a new study. The finding adds to understanding of the cold sensing protein TRPM8 (pronounced trip-em-ate), first identified in a Nature paper in 2002 by David McKemy of the University of Southern California.

18 Jun 2010

Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Alnylam collaborate to develop microRNA-based attenuated influenza viruses

Mount Sinai School of Medicine has completed an exclusive option agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a leading RNAi therapeutics company, for intellectual property related to RNAi applications in vaccine development. These new applications of RNAi technology define opportunities for the advancement of novel vaccines in infectious disease.

18 Jun 2010

Loss of Manhattan hospital crowds other ERs; Utah discourages Medicaid patients from unnecessary ER visits

"Emergency rooms in downtown Manhattan have become more crowded since St. Vincent's Hospital closed in April, but ambulances are getting patients into the remaining ERs faster than they did when the 161-year-old Greenwich Village hospital was open." Bellevue Hospital Center, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York Downtown Hospital and New York University Langone Medical Center are the "four downtown ERs left to pick up the slack" and have experienced increases in patient visits in May compared with 2008 levels.

18 Jun 2010

Fraudulent Tamiflu sold over Internet, FDA warns

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today warned consumers about a potentially harmful product represented as "Generic Tamiflu" sold over the Internet. FDA tests revealed that the fraudulent product does not contain Tamiflu's active ingredient, oseltamivir, but cloxacillin, an ingredient in the same class of antibiotics as penicillin.

18 Jun 2010

Alkermes receives tentative schedule notification for FDA advisory committee meeting on VIVITROL sNDA

Alkermes, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has notified the company of the tentative scheduling of a Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting on September 16, 2010, for the review of the company's supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for VIVITROL® (naltrexone for extended-release injectable suspension) for opioid dependence.

18 Jun 2010

$FDA approves Jevtana in combination with prednisone for metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer$

FDA approves Jevtana in combination with prednisone for metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer

Sanofi-aventis announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted marketing authorization for Jevtana® (cabazitaxel) Injection in combination with prednisone for the treatment of patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer (mHRPC) previously treated with a docetaxel-containing treatment regimen.

18 Jun 2010

Malaria rises as forests disappear: Study

Avid deforestation of the tropical forests is cited to be one of the reasons for the 50% increase in incidence of this disease in the surrounding areas according to a new research that is tracking deforestation in Brazil's Amazon.

18 Jun 2010

2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine protects against 1918 influenza virus: Report

Mice injected with a 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine and then exposed to high levels of the virus responsible for the 1918 influenza pandemic do not get sick or die, report scientists funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

17 Jun 2010

Scientific American publishes article on "rebirth" of DNA vaccines

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that Scientific American magazine has published in its July issue an article entitled "DNA Drugs Come of Age." The article was co-authored by Dr. David Weiner, Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Matthew Morrow, a post-doctorate research fellow at University of Pennsylvania.

17 Jun 2010

Daily use of probiotics reduces VAP in critically ill patients: New research

Daily use of probiotics reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients by almost half, according to new research from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska.

17 Jun 2010

Stony Brook team creates live attenuated influenza virus vaccine by computer-aided rational design

A team of molecular biologists and computer scientists at Stony Brook University have used a novel method to weaken (attenuate) influenza virus by way of designing hundreds of mutations to its genetic code to create an effective vaccine. Reported online and in the July issue of Nature Biotechnology, the method may be a major step in developing more effective and safe vaccines against influenza, which claims 250,000 to 500,000 lives annually worldwide, partly because existing vaccines are not fully effective.

17 Jun 2010

Financial Times examines how GAVI's $2.6B shortfall might affect new vaccine programs in developing countries

GAVI Alliance's plan to introduce new vaccine projects in the developing world "is under threat amid the international economic downturn," the Financial Times reports. "Subsidies to extend the use of vaccines against rubella, HPV to tackle cervical cancer, cholera and Japanese encephalitis in the developing world are among those likely to be cancelled or delayed," according to GAVI's CEO Julian Lob-Levyt, the newspaper writes.

17 Jun 2010

UC researchers receive $2.3M grant to develop user-friendly diagnostics for influenza virus

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have received a five-year grant to develop rapid, robust, user-friendly diagnostics for influenza virus. An interdisciplinary team of scientists has received a $2.3 million dollar grant from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the National Institutes of Health. The name of the grant is "Glycan Receptor Mimics for Rapid Detection, Typing, and Susceptibility Testing of Influenza."

17 Jun 2010

Also in Global Health News: Clinton to Haiti; Global Fund suspends Zambian aid; Ugandan health workers; MDG summit; Rwandan health insurance; HIV drugs in Kenya

Reuters reports that former President Bill Clinton will return to Haiti to "jump-start" the country's post-earthquake reconstruction. Clinton will head the first meeting of Haiti's reconstruction commission, "part of a sorely needed effort to better coordinate international aid efforts, [Prime Minister Jean-Max] Bellerive said." Bellerive hopes the meeting will "establish clear-cut guidelines" for distributing more than $5 billion in aid from 140 countries following the Jan. 12 earthquake (Brown, 6/16).

16 Jun 2010

Meningococcal disease in infants: A potentially difficult and serious diagnosis

An article published in the May 2010 edition of Postgraduate Medicine documents a case study where a previously healthy, 15-week-old male infant was misdiagnosed and died of meningococcal disease. Initially the patient showed signs of the common cold and was treated as such, but symptoms worsened and he was admitted to the hospital emergency department.

16 Jun 2010

Microneedle skin patches as effective as hypodermic needles for flu vaccination

Flu vaccine delivered through skin patches containing microneedles has proven at least as effective at preventing influenza in mice as intramuscular, hypodermic flu immunization.

16 Jun 2010

Vaccination against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus may also protect against 1918 Spanish influenza virus

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have determined people who were vaccinated against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus may also be protected against the lethal 1918 Spanish influenza virus, which killed more than 50 million people worldwide. The new findings are published in the current issue of Nature Communications.

16 Jun 2010

Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Groundbreaking ceremony for Ravensburg Vetter West facility

Model Formulary for Children provides information on how to use over 240 essential medicines

Yearlong collaborative partnership launched to reduce hospital readmissions due to heart failure

Laboratory mouse study shows cold sensing neural circuits develop well after birth

Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Alnylam collaborate to develop microRNA-based attenuated influenza viruses

Loss of Manhattan hospital crowds other ERs; Utah discourages Medicaid patients from unnecessary ER visits

Fraudulent Tamiflu sold over Internet, FDA warns

Alkermes receives tentative schedule notification for FDA advisory committee meeting on VIVITROL sNDA

FDA approves Jevtana in combination with prednisone for metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer

Malaria rises as forests disappear: Study

2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine protects against 1918 influenza virus: Report

Scientific American publishes article on "rebirth" of DNA vaccines

Daily use of probiotics reduces VAP in critically ill patients: New research

Stony Brook team creates live attenuated influenza virus vaccine by computer-aided rational design

Financial Times examines how GAVI's $2.6B shortfall might affect new vaccine programs in developing countries

UC researchers receive $2.3M grant to develop user-friendly diagnostics for influenza virus

Also in Global Health News: Clinton to Haiti; Global Fund suspends Zambian aid; Ugandan health workers; MDG summit; Rwandan health insurance; HIV drugs in Kenya

Meningococcal disease in infants: A potentially difficult and serious diagnosis

Microneedle skin patches as effective as hypodermic needles for flu vaccination

Vaccination against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus may also protect against 1918 Spanish influenza virus

AI in Healthcare: How generative tools are transforming clinical practice

The future of automation: Machine learning–driven hepatocyte and organoid counting

From street to lab: Advancing controlled substance testing with handheld Raman and FTIR

Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

AI in Healthcare: How generative tools are transforming clinical practice

The future of automation: Machine learning–driven hepatocyte and organoid counting

From street to lab: Advancing controlled substance testing with handheld Raman and FTIR

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