Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

GE Healthcare introduces KUBio factory

GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of GE, today introduced KUBio, an innovative off-the-shelf, modular factory designed to save manufacturers of biopharmaceuticals both time and money.

4 Sep 2012

Health Net helps to increase awareness about importance of whooping cough vaccination

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of whooping cough cases in the United States could reach a 50-year high in 2012. The CDC's forecast is based on the fact that, as of July 2012, twice as many cases of whooping cough - or pertussis as it's referred to clinically - had been reported to the CDC thus far this year as compared to the same point in 2011.

1 Sep 2012

VLST, Pfizer enter in-licensing agreement for anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody

VLST Corporation, a Seattle-based biotechnology company focused on the development of therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, today announced an in-licensing agreement with Pfizer Inc. for an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody.

31 Aug 2012

Study explains why some cancer vaccines are not as effective as hoped

A research report published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology offers a possible explanation of why some cancer vaccines are not as effective as hoped, while at the same time identifies a new therapeutic strategy for treating autoimmune problems. In the report, scientists suggest that cancer, even in the very early stages, produces a negative immune response from dendritic cells, which prevent lymphocytes from working against the disease.

31 Aug 2012

Less than half of U.S. schools address pandemic preparedness in their school plan

Less than half of U.S. schools address pandemic preparedness in their school plan, and only 40 percent have updated their school plan since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, according to a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

31 Aug 2012

Soligenix’s RiVax induces greater ricin neutralizing antibody levels in humans

Soligenix, Inc., a development stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today the results of a Phase 1B clinical trial of an aluminum hydroxide (Alum) adjuvanted formulation of RiVax, designed to improve the immunogenicity of the vaccine.

31 Aug 2012

Researchers discover new immune response mechanism during infection

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered a new "first response" mechanism that the immune system uses to respond to infection. The findings challenge the current understanding of immunity and could lead to new strategies for boosting effectiveness of all vaccines. The study, conducted in mice, published online today in the journal Immunity.

31 Aug 2012

India's contribution to global health R&D needs domestic, international support

As the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, and China -- invest more in innovations in health technologies and other areas, "many are looking to these countries to correct the global health research and development (R&D) imbalance that leaves the poor without needed products such as an improved tuberculosis (TB) vaccine or tests to help diagnose patients in remote rural settings," David de Ferranti, president of Results for Development Institute (R4D), writes in the Huffington Post Blog.

30 Aug 2012

UTMB to offer HPV vaccination against cervical cancer

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston's Dr. Abbey Berenson has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to start a program that will provide a vaccination against cervical cancer to many hundreds of low-income women who receive health care services at UTMB.

30 Aug 2012

Peruvian President announces launch of government fund to fight child malnutrition

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala on Monday said the country's central government and regional governments would provide $1.03 million to a fund aimed at reducing child malnutrition, Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times reports.

30 Aug 2012

Sleep disorder treatment: an interview with Dr Seth Lederman, President and CEO of Tonix Pharmaceuticals

Sleep disorders are a large area. We are focused on one particular type of sleep disturbance called “non-restorative” sleep. People with this problem do sleep, but they don’t wake up feeling refreshed or feeling that their sleep has had the restorative effects of healthy sleep.

29 Aug 2012

Washington Post examines Guinea worm eradication efforts

The Washington Post examines global efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease, writing, "The parasitic infection which has sickened millions, mostly in Asia and Africa, is on the verge of being done in not by sophisticated medicine but by aggressive public health efforts in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the world."

29 Aug 2012

Top 10 reasons to avoid flu shots this year

It's the gift that keeps on giving, from early fall, through the holiday season and into late spring. It's seasonal flu, caused by a virus that can fly through the air, hitch a ride on a handshake, hug or kiss, and is extremely good at infecting people and making them sick.

29 Aug 2012

Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics Special Focus provides critical view on cancer vaccines

In one of the most comprehensive peer-reviewed discussions on cancer vaccines and immunotherapeutics, a Special Focus in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics provides a critical view on cancer vaccines and a discussion on best approaches for the future.

28 Aug 2012

Process for setting new global development goals should be open, inclusive

In this CNN opinion piece, Jamie Drummond, co-founder and executive director of ONE, notes the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is approaching, assesses progress towards these goals and examines issues surrounding the creation of a new set of goals.

28 Aug 2012

Regulating microbes could help prevent diseases associated with obesity

Vaccines and antibiotics may someday join caloric restriction or bariatric surgery as a way to regulate weight gain, according to a new study focused on the interactions between diet, the bacteria that live in the bowel, and the immune system.

27 Aug 2012

PEI adjuvant improves effect of vaccines against flu, HIV and herpes

Oxford University scientists have discovered a compound that greatly boosts the effect of vaccines against viruses like flu, HIV and herpes in mice.

26 Aug 2012

Dartmouth’s professor shares news of DAR-901 TB vaccine development

Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide attributable to a single infectious agent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). With 8.8 million cases in 2010 and 95 percent of TB deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries, the disease continues to be a major public health problem in the developing world. In a July address to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Dartmouth's C. Fordham (Ford) von Reyn shared news of a promising vaccine in the works.

24 Aug 2012

The Wistar Institute, MSKCC partner to publish first annotated atlas of Epstein-Barr virus genome

Researchers from The Wistar Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have teamed to publish the first annotated atlas of the Epstein-Barr virus genome, creating the most comprehensive study of how the viral genome interacts with its human host during a latent infection. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is thought to be responsible for one percent of all human cancers, establishes a latent infection in nearly 100 percent of infected adult humans.

24 Aug 2012

New book sparks debate over whether vaccines cause autism

The bitter debate over whether vaccines cause autism is masking real problems with the modern inoculation schedule and encouraging a growing number of parents to refuse recommended vaccines for their children, argues a Michigan State University scholar.

23 Aug 2012