Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Study: PrEP treatment offers protection against HIV transmission in humanized mice

Systemic pre-exposure administration of antiretroviral drugs provides protection against intravenous and rectal transmission of HIV in mice with human immune systems, according to a new study published January 21, 2010 in the online journal PLoS ONE.

21 Jan 2010

Discovery of new class of compounds may help fight hepatitis C

Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have discovered a novel class of compounds that, in experiments in vitro, inhibit replication of the virus responsible for hepatitis C. If these compounds prove effective in infected humans as well, they may dramatically accelerate efforts to confront this virus’s propensity to rapidly acquire drug resistance, while possibly skirting some of the troubling side effects common among therapies in current use and in late-stage development.

21 Jan 2010

SVA plans to sell 8,650,000 common shares in an underwritten public offering

Sinovac Biotech Ltd. ( SVA), a leading China-based vaccine manufacturer, today announced that it plans to sell, subject to market and other conditions, 8,650,000 common shares of the company in an underwritten public offering.

21 Jan 2010

BIO commends GSK and Alnylam’s efforts to foster new therapies for neglected diseases

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) applauds the joint efforts of BIO members GlaxoSmithKline and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to encourage research to accelerate medical therapies for neglected diseases and today’s announcement of the selection of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) as the administrator of the Intellectual Property (IP) Pool.

21 Jan 2010

Medical student receives 2009 Lucien Rubenstein Award

The American Brain Tumor Association has announced that Alexander Ksendzovsky, a third-year medical student at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago, is the 2009 Lucien Rubenstein Award recipient.

21 Jan 2010

Acyclovir does not reduce risk of HIV transmission for people infected with both HIV and HSV-2

A five-year international multi-center clinical trial has found that acyclovir, a drug widely used as a safe and effective treatment taken twice daily to suppress herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), which is the most common cause of genital herpes, does not reduce the risk of HIV transmission when taken by people infected with both HIV and HSV-2.

21 Jan 2010

Healthcare industry in Asia Pacific to grow up to US$349 billion by 2012

Frost & Sullivan believes that the healthcare industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from "sickness care" to "wellness". Focused on the 5 Ps – Preventive, Pre-emptive, Personalized, Predictive and Personal Responsibility – the healthcare industry in Asia Pacific is expected to grow to US$349 billion by 2012.

21 Jan 2010

GSK to offer scientists access to compounds, lab space to fight malaria

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)'s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty on Tuesday unveiled the company's plans to allow "free access to its library of 13,500 potential malaria treatments and devote the profits from its experimental [RTS,S] vaccine to battling tropical illnesses that beset poor countries," Bloomberg reports (Randall, 1/20).

21 Jan 2010

Xbrane Bioscience signs licensing arrangement with Vaxiion Therapeutics

The Swedish biotech company Xbrane Bioscience and the San Diego based biotech company Vaxiion Therapeutics, Inc. have announced that they have reached a licensing arrangement granting Xbrane Bioscience rights to Vaxiion’s proprietary protein production system – the Rhamex System™.

21 Jan 2010

QuantRx Biomedical's developments in genetics-based technology

QuantRx® Biomedical Corporation, a broad-based diagnostic company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative diagnostic products, today provided an update from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Walter Witoshkin on its involvement in genetics-based personalized medicine and disease prevention.

20 Jan 2010

HPV vaccine will reduce number of cervical cancer cases in women under 30

The number of women under 30 diagnosed with cervical cancer will fall nearly two thirds by 2025, thanks to the HPV vaccine.

20 Jan 2010

Over 44% of internet Viagra is counterfeit

Research by UK, Swedish and American researchers shows that taking internet drugs can kill and bypassing health systems can leave life-threatening problems undiagnosed. It's estimated that 90% of counterfeit drugs are sold on the internet, 44% of internet Viagra is fake, the global sale of counterfeit drugs will reach $75 billion this year and EU seizures have risen dramatically. Counterfeit drug deaths include men who took fake erectile dysfunction drugs, pregnant women injected with fake iron for anaemia and children who took paracetamol syrup contaminated with antifreeze.

20 Jan 2010

UCI finding could complicate quest to eradicate deadly disease in humans

Chimpanzees were known to carry the parasite Plasmodium reichenowi, but most scientists assumed the two parasites had existed separately in humans and chimpanzees for the last 5 million years.

20 Jan 2010

Liquidia Technologies completes $20M Series C financing round

Liquidia Technologies, a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing particle-based vaccines and therapeutics, today announced it has completed a $20 million round of Series C financing. Canaan Partners led the Series C round, which also included Pappas Ventures and Morningside Venture Investments Limited as new investors. Previous investors, including New Enterprise Associates and Firelake Capital, also participated in the financing round.

20 Jan 2010

Media outlets examine efforts to develop malaria vaccines

Scientists have identified a group of proteins they say could form the basis of a malaria vaccine, Australia's ABC News reports. "However, they say more laboratory work and clinical trials need to be done, with a vaccine at least 10 years away," the news service reports (Macey, 1/19).

20 Jan 2010

Fraunhofer USA CMB receives $60,000 gift from ProTecs to complete vaccine manufacturing plant

The Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology, a not-for-profit, 501 (c3) research organization, announced today that it has received a $60,000 gift from ProTecs, Inc., to complete its new, state of-the-art vaccine manufacturing plant in Newark, Delaware.

20 Jan 2010

Merck’s initiation of EMD 1201081-cetuximab combination Phase 2 trial triggers €3.0M milestone payment

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that it has achieved a milestone under its worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The milestone was achieved upon initiation of a Phase 2 trial by Merck KGaA of EMD 1201081, a novel agonist of Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLR9), in combination with cetuximab (Erbitux®) in second-line cetuximab-naïve patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

20 Jan 2010

Global health care errors, fraud costs $260b annually, report finds

A report released Monday finds $260 billion - or 5.59 percent of annual global health spending - is lost annually to health care errors and fraud, Reuters reports. For the study, the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network (EHFCN) and the Center for Counter Fraud Services (CCFS) at Britain's Portsmouth University, "reviewed 69 exercises in 33 organizations in six countries to measure healthcare fraud and error losses," the news service reports.

20 Jan 2010

WHO, CDC issue H1N1 updates

Though H1N1 (swine flu) activity worldwide has slowed, the potential of a new wave of infections in the northern hemisphere in late winter or early spring remains viable, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's top flu expert, said Monday at the start of the WHO's weeklong executive board meeting, Reuters reports.

19 Jan 2010

Scarab Genomics launches White Glove IS Detection Kit

Scarab Genomics has now launched the White Glove IS Detection Kit to test for the presence of transposable Insertion Sequence (IS) elements in a DNA of interest. Numerous IS elements are naturally present in the genomes of E. coli strains commonly used for protein and plasmid production, but are not present in the Scarab Genomics Clean Genome® strains.

19 Jan 2010