Hepatitis B News and Research

Latest Hepatitis B News and Research

Medco fourth-quarter total net revenues increase 12.2% to record $19.0 billion

Medco Health Solutions, Inc. today reported record fourth-quarter 2011 GAAP diluted EPS of $1.08, an increase of 22.7 percent, which includes expenses associated with the pending merger with Express Scripts, Inc. of $43.6 million before provision for income taxes. When excluding these merger-related expenses, diluted EPS increased 29.5 percent over fourth-quarter 2010.

21 Feb 2012

New triple-therapies found cost-effective for chronic hepatitis C patients with advanced liver disease

A towering $60,000 bill, a year of fierce, flu-like symptoms and a running risk of depression are among the possible costs of two new hepatitis C treatments. But according to Stanford University health policy researchers, they might be worth it.

21 Feb 2012

Bristol-Myers Squibb awards 3 new grants to enhance HBV and HCV prevention, diagnosis and care

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has awarded three new grants to improve prevention, diagnosis and care of hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) in China and India as part of its Delivering Hope: Awareness, Prevention and Care umbrella program which is committed to reducing hepatitis-related health disparities in Asia.

19 Feb 2012

U of A researcher discovers new vaccine against HCV

A University of Alberta researcher and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology has made the discovery of a vaccine that will potentially help combat hepatitis C. Michael Houghton, who led the team that discovered the hepatitis C virus in 1989, announced his findings at the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Summit in Vancouver this afternoon. Currently, there are no vaccines against the disease available.

17 Feb 2012

New way to improve vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases

Research groups from Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University of Geneva have discovered a new way of improving vaccines against infectious diseases and for use in cancer therapies. Scientists have shown a basic new mechanism that stimulates the body's own alarm signals in case of viral infection to animate the immune system to maximum performance.

17 Feb 2012

BioCryst fourth quarter revenues decrease to $5.2 million

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2011.

16 Feb 2012

Stress protein effectively activates replication of HBV in liver cells

People who have received a donor organ need lifelong immunosuppressant drugs to keep their immune system from attacking the foreign tissue. However, with a suppressed immune system, many infectious agents turn into a threat. Infections such as with human cytomegalovirus and a certain type of human polyomavirus frequently cause complications in transplant recipients.

14 Feb 2012

Obama's budget demonstrates his strong commitment to end HIV

"The budget President Obama outlined today yet again demonstrates his strong commitment to ending HIV by increasing funding for prevention and lifesaving care and treatment for those who cannot afford it in the United States," commented Carl Schmid, Deputy Executive Director of The AIDS Institute.

13 Feb 2012

Scientists discover ferocity of immune system after viral infection

A scientific team led by researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Charité Berlin Medical University has made a completely unprecedented discovery showing how much our immune system is provoked into action when confronted by viral intruders.

10 Feb 2012

Study implicates 'arms race' between genes and germs

Biologists have found new evidence of why mice, people and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of varieties of genes to make immune-system proteins named MHCs--even though some of those genes make vertebrate animals susceptible to infections and to autoimmune diseases.

9 Feb 2012

Routine 4CMenB immunizations effective against meningococcal strains in infants

Administration of routine infant immunizations with a vaccine for serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis, a bacterium that is a cause of serious disease such as sepsis and meningitis, was effective against meningococcal strains and produced minimal interference with the response to the routine vaccinations, according to a study in the February 8 issue of JAMA.

8 Feb 2012

National Black HIV/AIDS Day brings new statistics

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Blacks represent approximately 14 percent of the U.S. population, but accounted for an estimated 44 percent of new HIV infections in 2009. Over the same period, the rate of new HIV infections among black women was 15 times that of White women, and over 3 times the rate of Hispanic/Latina women.

7 Feb 2012

NIH, USDA and research facilities need to protect captive great apes

The Bioethics of Great Ape Well-Being: Psychiatric Injury and Duty of Care, recently published in the Animals & Society Institute's (ASI) Public Policy series, asserts that historically and to date the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and research facilities have failed in their legal duty to protect captive great apes by not preventing foreseeable trauma of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and other psychological injuries.

6 Feb 2012

BioLineRx, Genoscience and RFS Pharma enter agreement for BL-8030 Hepatitis C treatment

BioLineRx, a biopharmaceutical development company, announced today it has signed a worldwide, exclusive license agreement with Genoscience and RFS Pharma to develop and commercialize BL-8030, an orally available treatment for Hepatitis C.

6 Feb 2012

Enrollment opens in sorafenib vs. radioembolization in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma trial

'SARAH' - a French national collaborative randomized controlled trial of radioembolization with yttrium-90 resin microspheres versus sorafenib in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma is now open for recruitment

3 Feb 2012

Caffeine consumption reduces risk of advanced fibrosis in NAFLD patients

Caffeine consumption has long been associated with decreased risk of liver disease and reduced fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease. Now, newly published research confirms that coffee caffeine consumption reduces the risk of advanced fibrosis in those with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

3 Feb 2012

Blood cell therapy works for nasopharyngeal cancer: Study

Scientists from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research have made a breakthrough in the treatment of throat cancer. The researchers have developed a therapy that uses a patient's blood to grow special white blood cells that recognize and fight infected cancer cells. The results of this study have been published in the journal Cancer Research.

2 Feb 2012

ACIP recommends changes in 2012 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices now recommends routine HPV vaccination for males aged 11 to 12 years and catch-up vaccination for males aged 13 to 21. These are just two of the changes to the 2012 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule being published February 1 in Annals of Internal Medicine, the flagship journal of the American College of Physicians.

2 Feb 2012

Scientists establish HCV infection in liver-like cells derived from iPSCs

Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that can cause inflammation and organ failure, has different effects on different people. But no one is sure why some people are very susceptible to the infection, while others are resistant. Scientists believe that if they could study liver cells from different people in the lab, they could determine how genetic differences produce these varying responses. However, liver cells are difficult to obtain and notoriously difficult to grow in a lab dish because they tend to lose their normal structure and function when removed from the body.

2 Feb 2012

HSP40/70 linked to hepatitis C infection

Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a cell-permeable peptide that inhibits a hepatitis C virus protein and blocks viral replication, which can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis.

31 Jan 2012