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FDA ADAC recommends approval of Gilead’s Truvada for HIV

Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced that the Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted to support approval of once-daily oral Truvada(emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) to reduce the risk of HIV-1 infection among uninfected adults, an HIV prevention strategy called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP.

11 May 2012

USAID launches five-year initiative in Nigeria to strengthen HIV, TB services

U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Terence McCulley on Tuesday in Abuja, Nigeria, launched a five-year, $224 million USAID program, titled Strengthening Integrated Delivery of HIV/AIDS Services (SIDHAS), that aims to "increase access to high-quality comprehensive HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis prevention, treatment, care and related services through improved efficiencies in service delivery," the Daily Trust reports.

10 May 2012

Leishmaniasis vaccine trial begins in U.S., India

"A vaccine against one of the most neglected yet fatal tropical diseases is being tested for the first time in a clinical trial in India and the U.S.," IRIN reports. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), "also called kala-azar or black fever, infects an estimated half million persons or more annually," and "it is found most commonly in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil and Sudan," the news service notes.

10 May 2012

UNAIDS launches campaign aimed at ending new HIV infections among children by 2015

UNAIDS on Tuesday launched a new campaign "aimed at ending new HIV infections among children by 2015 and ensuring mothers living with HIV remain healthy," Xinhua reports.

10 May 2012

NCATS initiative to use abandoned experimental drugs for other uses 'a step in the right direction'

The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) -- a new plan to help speed drug development by making abandoned experimental drugs available to researchers who can look for alternative uses -- "is an indication that the Obama administration and the medical research enterprise are thinking out of the box," Michael Manganiello, a partner at HCM Strategists, writes in a Huffington Post "Politics Blog" opinion piece.

10 May 2012

Researchers use clever screening methods to speed vaccine production

Infectious diseases-both old and new-continue to exact a devastating toll, causing some 13 million fatalities per year around the world. Vaccines remain the best line of defense against deadly pathogens and now Kathryn Sykes and Stephen Johnston, researchers at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, along with co-author Michael McGuire from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center are using clever functional screening methods to attempt to speed new vaccines into production that are both safer and more potent.

10 May 2012

Treatment with IL-12 triggers T cell exhaustion in cancer patients

Rather than stimulating immune cells to more effectively battle cancerous tumors, treatment with the protein interleukin-12 (IL-12) has the opposite effect, driving these intracellular fighters to exhaustion, a Mayo Clinic study has found.

10 May 2012

ACOEM honors JNJ with 2012 Corporate Health Achievement Award

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) the world's most comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of health care products, as well as a provider of related services for the consumer and pharmaceutical and medical devices and diagnostics markets, has been awarded the 2012 Corporate Health Achievement Award (CHAA) by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

10 May 2012

G&D, IAVI and GMI partner to develop new HIV/AIDS vaccine

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), GlycoMimetics, Inc. (GMI), and Glycosensors and Diagnostics, LLC (G&D) today announced a collaboration to develop an AIDS vaccine using novel compounds that mimic carbohydrates, called glycomimetics.

10 May 2012

Inovio first quarter total revenue decreases to $1.7 million

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

10 May 2012

Truvada deemed safe & effective in HIV infection risk reduction

Gilead Sciences Inc's Truvada pills are deemed safe and effective for reducing the risk of HIV infection, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday. But they recommended a cautious approach for using the drug in efforts to prevent the virus that causes AIDS.

9 May 2012

USAID committed to improving lives of children affected by HIV/AIDS

"Despite many gains in the fight against AIDS, children still lag far behind adults in access to important medical services, including HIV prevention, care, and treatment," Jen Pollakusky, communications analyst at USAID's Bureau of Global Health Office of HIV/AIDS, writes in USAID's "IMPACTblog," noting that Monday marked the 10th anniversary of World AIDS Orphan Day.

9 May 2012

Report notes rise in obesity slowing, but still huge health, cost problem

The obesity rate may rise to 42 percent from about a third of the U.S. population by 2030 if nothing changes, according to a report. Preventing that increase may save about $550 billion in medical costs over the next 20 years, Eric Finkelstein, the study author and an associate research professor at Duke University, said during a press briefing.

9 May 2012

New York Times examines Cuba's sanitarium network for people living with HIV

The New York Times examines the Cuban network of sanitariums created to house and treat people living with HIV, "to keep the infected from having sex with anyone uninfected and to help them die comfortably."

9 May 2012

Study offers new insight on known link between exposure to violence and sexual risk-taking

Women who have experienced multiple forms of violence, from witnessing neighborhood crimes to being abused themselves, are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, according to a new report in the Psychology of Violence.

9 May 2012

Option for couples to test together, access ART for prevention can reduce HIV risk

"If we don't leverage the power of innovation to transform how health services are provided and utilized, efforts to stop new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths can reach a stalemate," UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe writes in this opinion piece in the Huffington Post's "Healthy Living" blog.

9 May 2012

Goosby calls for 'extraordinary resources' to be put into male circumcision to prevent HIV infection

Male circumcision is "a highly significant, lifetime intervention" to prevent HIV infection that deserves "extraordinary resources," U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby on Monday told a meeting of 400 army officials from 80 countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and central Asia, Agence France-Presse reports.

9 May 2012

Certain males at higher risk of infection after receiving experimental HIV vaccine

A long-term follow-up analysis of participants in the Step Study, an international HIV-vaccine trial, has confirmed that certain subgroups of male study participants were at higher risk of becoming infected after receiving the experimental vaccine compared to those who received a placebo.

8 May 2012

PEPFAR releases 8th annual report to Congress

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog notes that PEPFAR recently released its 8th annual report to Congress.

8 May 2012

FDA approves Clinigen’s Foscavir sNDA to treat HIV/AIDS-related CMV infections and herpes

Clinigen Healthcare, the pharmaceutical products division of Clinigen Group, announced today that its supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for Foscavir (foscarnet sodium), a treatment for HIV/AIDS-related cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections and herpes, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

From Clinigen Group 8 May 2012