Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Vetter signs preferred partnership agreement with Sentry BioPharma Services

Vetter, a leading provider of aseptic pre-filled drug-delivery systems, and Sentry BioPharma Services, a provider of supply chain management and clinical packaging services, today announced that they have signed a preferred partnership agreement.

12 May 2010

PharmAthene first-quarter revenue decreases to $3.1 million

PharmAthene, Inc., a biodefense company developing medical countermeasures against biological and chemical threats, today reported financial and operational results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010.

12 May 2010

Vaccination of infants with Rotarix reduces rate of rotavirus infection: Researchers

Vaccination of infants with Rotarix or RotaTeq significantly reduces the rate of severe rotavirus diarrhoea, hospitalizations, medical attention due to rotavirus and severe diarrhoea from all causes. The vaccines are not associated with increased numbers of serious adverse events.

12 May 2010

Scancell signs worldwide licensing agreement with NIH for TRP-2 and gp100 melanoma antigens

Scancell Holdings Plc,, the developer of therapeutic cancer vaccines, is pleased to announce it has signed a worldwide non-exclusive licensing agreement with the National Institutes of Health ('NIH'), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for use of the melanoma antigens TRP-2 and gp100, key components of Scancell's lead ImmunoBody® vaccine for melanoma, SCIB1.

11 May 2010

Intercell reports EUR 4.8m revenue, EUR 14.7m net loss for first-quarter 2010

Today, the biotech-vaccine company Intercell AG announced its financial results for Q1 and presented an update on the Company's development programs.

11 May 2010

New findings could help develop vaccines against respiratory infections

Inducing cellular immunity as a means to protect against influenza virus is the focus of several laboratories at the Trudeau Institute. Researchers here have recently identified two important signaling components required by the immune system that might allow us to pre-position our own virus-fighting T cells to the lungs, the site of initial infection.

11 May 2010

New York Times examines global fight against HIV/AIDS

Several articles in the New York Times examine the global fight against HIV/AIDS. "Uganda is the first country where major clinics routinely turn people away" because they lack funding, the newspaper writes in an article that reports "money for [HIV/AIDS] treatment has stopped growing."

11 May 2010

CVS calls on FDA to suspend use of contaminated rotavirus vaccines

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened a panel of experts to review recent findings that rotavirus vaccines given to infants in the U.S., Rotateq, produced by Merck Pharmaceuticals and Rotarix produced by GlaxoSmithKline, are contaminated with DNA from pig viruses PCV1 and PCV2. On March 22nd the FDA Commissioner asked doctors to suspend use of the Rotarix vaccine due to the contamination. Upon additional testing, Rotateq was also found to be contaminated.

10 May 2010

Asthmatx announces first U.S. patient treated with BT delivered by Alair System

Asthmatx, Inc. reported today that doctors at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., recently treated the first U.S. patient with bronchial thermoplasty (BT) delivered by the Alair® System, the first device-based asthma treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

10 May 2010

Ferring to acquire global rights to Xanodyne Pharmaceutical's LYSTEDA

Ferring Pharmaceuticals today announced an agreement that will expand its Women's Health product portfolio with the acquisition of the global rights to Xanodyne Pharmaceutical's LYSTEDA™ (tranexamic acid), a first-in-class, non-hormonal therapy indicated specifically for treatment of women with cyclic heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB).

10 May 2010

European patent strengthens Soligenix' topically active steroid intellectual property portfolio

Soligenix, Inc., a late-stage biotechnology company, announced today that the European Patent Office granted patent EP 1392321 "Method of Treating Inflammatory Disorders of the Gastrointestinal Tract using Topically Active Corticosteroids." The new patent's main claims cover the use of topically active corticosteroids in orally administered dosage forms that act concurrently in the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract.

10 May 2010

GSK participates in FDA advisory committee's rotavirus vaccine meeting

GlaxoSmithKline today participated in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee meeting convened to discuss recent findings of porcine circovirus (PCV) in rotavirus vaccines. Although the committee did not issue any formal recommendations, members widely acknowledged that the benefits of vaccinating infants worldwide against rotavirus disease clearly outweigh the theoretical risks associated with the presence of porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV-1) in the vaccines.

10 May 2010

Scientists develop dry, inhalable measles vaccine, will begin testing in India this summer

CBSNews.com reports on the development of a dry, inhalable measles vaccine by researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder), who hope that their work will "help pave the way for the inexpensive treatment of a range of other illnesses" (Cooper, 5/5).

10 May 2010

GP practices to get funds to employ full time nurses

There are nearly 40 percent GP practices in Australia who do not employ the services of a trained nurse. Authorities believe that there are 441,000 unnecessary hospital admissions each year only because of inability of patients to manage their chronic diseases due to lack of knowledge, or their inability to get adequate follow up care.

9 May 2010

Encouraging B. anthracis to unwittingly unmask itself will help eradicate the pathogen

Anthrax-causing bacteria can be engineered to shed their invisibility cloaks, making it easier for the immune system to eradicate it, according to a new study published in Microbiology. The work could lead to new measures to treat anthrax infection in the event of a biological warfare attack.

7 May 2010

Aceto third-quarter net sales up 24.5% to $99.3 million

Aceto Corporation, a global leader in the sourcing, quality assurance, regulatory support, marketing and distribution of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, specialty chemicals and crop protection products, today announced results of operations for its fiscal 2010 third quarter and nine months ended March 31, 2010.

7 May 2010

Survey reveals low awareness of postherpetic neuralgia amongst Americans

The American Pain Foundation (APF) announced today at the American Pain Society (APS) Annual Meeting the results of a national survey that showed postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), also known as after-shingles pain, continues to be a condition with low awareness amongst Americans, demonstrating a need for health care provider (HCP) intervention.

7 May 2010

Challenges and limitations faced in avian influenza

Over the past decade, substantial resources have been spent on tackling avian influenza and building a global capacity for a pandemic response. The catastrophic costs of the 1918 influenza pandemic are well documented, and the swine flu pandemic of 2009-10 has raised the alarm yet again.

7 May 2010

New CD4 test kit can improve quality of life for HIV and AIDS patients

The use of rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests for the measurement of CD4 T-cells, a marker of the immune system will be an important factor in improving the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS especially in developing and resource-poor countries.

7 May 2010

New study may help design better vaccines for dengue fever

Some of the human immune system's defences against the virus that causes dengue fever actually help the virus to infect more cells, according to new research published today in the journal Science.

7 May 2010