Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

U.S. gastroenterologists to treat hepatitis C patients with telaprevir

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that U.S. gastroenterologists will treat a larger proportion of treatment nonresponder hepatitis C patients with Vertex/Tibotec/Mitsubishi Tanabe's telaprevir than Merck's boceprevir.

20 Jan 2010

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals presents data on multiple therapeutic programs at RNAi Symposium

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced that it presented data from multiple pre-clinical and clinical programs at the “RNA Silencing: Mechanism, Biology, and Application” Keystone Symposium held January 14-19, 2010 in Keystone, Colorado. Alnylam and its collaborators presented data from Alnylam’s therapeutic programs including transthyretin (TTR)-mediated amyloidosis and Huntington’s disease, as well as new data on delivery approaches for the systemic delivery of RNAi therapeutics.

20 Jan 2010

National Institutes of Mental Health awards $8M for HIV research

A multidisciplinary research team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has been awarded $8 million in funding by the National Institutes of Mental Health to develop methods to rid the body of HIV.

20 Jan 2010

Preliminary data from Phase 1 study of Sangamo BioSciences' SB-728-T announced

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced today that preliminary data from the University of Pennsylvania investigator sponsored Phase 1 safety study of Sangamo's zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) based product, SB-728-T, for HIV/AIDS were presented on Friday, January 15, 2010 at the Keystone Symposium Session "HIV Biology and Pathogenesis."

20 Jan 2010

CytoDyn commences enrollment in Cytolin clinical trial

Following approval of the Institutional Review Board, CytoDyn, Inc. has discharged its duty to register a clinical trial of Cytolin®, the Company’s lead product, with the government’s website at www.clinicaltrials.gov, ID NCT01048372. The public has online access to this federal database, which describes the key elements of clinical trials and their status.

19 Jan 2010

California limits HMO wait times

The regulations by the California Department of Managed Health Care, in the works for much of the last decade, will require that patients be treated by HMO doctors within 10 business days of requesting an appointment, and by specialists within 15.

19 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

GenVec and Novartis collaborate to develop novel treatments for hearing loss and balance disorders

GenVec and Novartis will collaborate to discover and develop novel treatments for hearing loss and balance disorders. Preclinical results suggest that delivery of the atonal gene using GenVec's innovative adenovector technology may have the potential to restore hearing and balance function.

19 Jan 2010

People with "mental lapses" more likely to have Alzheimer's disease

Older people who have "mental lapses," or times when their thinking seems disorganized or illogical or when they stare into space, may be more likely to have Alzheimer's disease than people who do not have these lapses, according to a study published in the January 19, 2010, print issue of Neurology-, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Jan 2010

Mutagenic drugs designed to kill viruses may make them stronger, says research

As the flu season continues in full-swing, most people can appreciate the need for drugs that stop viruses after they take hold in the body. Despite this serious need for new drugs, a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin raise serious concerns about an emerging strategy for stopping viral infections.

18 Jan 2010

Missouri best in using federal aid to combat Medicaid fraud, other states fight over federal rules

The Kansas City Star reports that Missouri led the country in 2008 in efficiency in using federal dollars to combat Medicaid fraud. "The state recovered almost $29.8 million in 2008, the most recent year for which comparative data are available, while receiving about $1.6 million in federal Medicaid fraud grants. That equates to $18.81 recovered for every dollar received — 43 cents better than the next-best state" (Noble, 1/12).

18 Jan 2010

Regulus Therapeutics presents new data on oncology, immune disease and HCV therapeutic programs

Regulus Therapeutics Inc. today announced that new pre-clinical data from multiple therapeutic programs were presented at the “RNA Silencing: Mechanism, Biology and Application” Keystone Symposium held January 14 – 19, 2010 in Keystone, Colorado. Regulus and its collaborators presented data showing microRNA target regulation by anti-miRs, as well as data from therapeutic programs focused on oncology, immune disease and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

18 Jan 2010

Scientists discover new mechanism that explains role of EBV in tumor growth

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a virus of the herpes family, has two distinct life phases: After infecting a cell it first goes into a resting phase. Under certain circumstances the virus can become active - and then induces tumor growth or promotes its synthesis in the cell.

18 Jan 2010

Large number of infected cases in Australia attribute to failure in containing H1N1 pandemic

The rapid and widespread entry of the pandemic H1N1 infection that led to a large number of infected cases in Australia suggested a public health management failure in containing the pandemic when it broke out in April 2009.

18 Jan 2010

Study finds large number of new couples among young adults infected with HPV

A groundbreaking study of couples led by Professor Eduardo Franco, Director of McGill University's Cancer Epidemiology Unit, in collaboration with a team of colleagues from McGill and Universit- de Montr-al/Centre Hospitalier de l'Universit- de Montr-al (CHUM), found more than half (56 per cent) of young adults in a new sexual relationship were infected with human papillomavirus (HPV).

18 Jan 2010

Cerus' INTERCEPT platelets therapeutically effective even after seven days of storage

Cerus Corporation announced today that INTERCEPT-treated platelet components were found to be effective for patient support following extended six and seven day storage in a clinical study conducted at four sites in Europe. These data further confirm the safety and therapeutic efficacy of platelets treated with the INTERCEPT Blood System, a pathogen inactivation treatment designed to protect against transfusion-transmitted diseases.

18 Jan 2010

FDA grants orphan drug exclusivity approval for Octapharma AG's wilate

Octapharma AG, one of the largest manufacturers of plasma products in the world, today announced that it has received orphan drug exclusivity approval for wilate® from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

18 Jan 2010

AVIR Green Hills Biotechnology commences deltaFLU Phase II study

AVIR Green Hills Biotechnology, the innovative biotech company based in Vienna, has started the New Year by embarking on the first clinical phase II study for the seasonal vaccine deltaFLU. The study will be carried out at the Medical University of Vienna. With this step, AVIR Green Hills has set yet another important milestone in the development of effective and modern influenza vaccines.

18 Jan 2010

Treatment for chronic hepatitis C with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin proves effective

The current standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C with pegylated-interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin is effective in approximately 50%-60% of patients, so that a substantial proportion of patients remain unresponsive.

18 Jan 2010

Study raises concerns about drug-resistant HIV

The emergence of drug-resistant strains of HIV could one day threaten efforts to control the global HIV pandemic, according to a study published online Thursday in the journal Science, HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report reports. The researchers based their findings on "a mathematical model that tracks the transmission of multiple strains of HIV" in San Francisco, the news service writes (1/14).

18 Jan 2010