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VOA News examines South Africa's rural public health sector

VOA News features a five-part series on South Africa's rural public health sector, which the news service writes is "plagued by a high burden of infectious diseases, severe doctor and nurse shortages, lack of medicines and essential medical equipment and incompetent management," resulting in high patient death rates.

8 May 2012

Salix first quarter total product revenue increases 62% to $171.1M

Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. today announced financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012 and other business updates.

8 May 2012

Data from Idera IMO-8400 preclinical studies for SLE and psoriasis presented at AAI meeting

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced data from preclinical studies of IMO-8400, demonstrating a novel mechanism of action that may be applicable to the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and psoriasis. IMO-8400 is an inhibitor of specific Toll-like receptors (TLRs).

7 May 2012

Walgreens acquires certain assets of BioScrip

Walgreen Co. today announced that it has completed its acquisition of certain assets of BioScrip, Inc.'s community specialty pharmacies and centralized specialty and mail service pharmacy businesses.

7 May 2012

Breckenridge finalizes agreement with Huahai to market Nevirapine Tablets

Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. announced today that it has finalized its agreement with Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (Huahai) to market Nevirapine Tablets. Nevirapine 200mg Tablets are AB rated to Viramune a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) used to treat HIV-1 infection and AIDS, which is marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim.

5 May 2012

Pfizer terminates Lyrica Phase 3 trial on neuropathic pain associated with HIV neuropathy

Pfizer Inc. announced today that it has stopped a Phase 3 clinical trial of Lyrica (pregabalin) in patients with neuropathic pain associated with HIV neuropathy, a form of nerve damage characterized by burning pain usually beginning in the feet. The decision follows review of a planned interim analysis of the study by the trial's external Data Monitoring Committee.

5 May 2012

Johns Hopkins receives $15 million NIH grant to establish CFAR

Johns Hopkins University has been awarded $15 million over the next five years from the National Institutes of Health to establish the new Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). CFAR will support more than 180 HIV investigators from the University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and other schools. A major priority for CFAR will be to address Baltimore's HIV epidemic in addition to training new investigators and conducting international research.

5 May 2012

U.N.-sponsored report finds 1 in 10 infants born prematurely worldwide

Fifteen million infants, or nearly one in 10 worldwide, "are born premature every year, and 1.1 million of those infants die, according to a U.N.-sponsored report released Wednesday," Agence France-Presse reports.

4 May 2012

HIV/AIDS funding does not undermine efforts to fight other diseases, study suggests

"While the battle against HIV/AIDS attracts more donor funding globally than all other diseases combined, it has not diverted attention from fighting unrelated afflictions -- such as malaria, measles and malnutrition -- and may be improving health services overall in targeted countries, according to a study on Rwanda published" Wednesday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, an American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) press release reports.

4 May 2012

AIDS, health groups submit comments to FDA prior to agency's review of PrEP

"In public comments submitted this week, a group of 14 leading HIV/AIDS and health organizations stated their support for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate [TDF/FTC] ... as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection in adult men and women," a press release from AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention states.

3 May 2012

Novel stem cell transplantation holds promise for HIV prevention

UC Davis Health System researchers are a step closer to launching human clinical trials involving the use of an innovative stem cell therapy to fight the virus that causes AIDS.

3 May 2012

Treatment as Prevention conference late breaker session presentations

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog rounds up results presented at a late breaker session at last week's 2nd International Treatment as Prevention Workshop in Vancouver. The blog notes the session "offered some interesting insights relevant to HIV treatment scale up."

3 May 2012

African-Americans with HIV less likely to adhere to ART therapy

African-Americans with HIV are much less likely to adhere to drug therapy than others with the disease, according to a University of Michigan study.

3 May 2012

Roundup: Mass. health cost control bill could save $8B to $34B; Md. weighs hospital rate freeze; Iowa Senate passes a fix for HIV insurance program

As Massachusetts' state legislators put the finishing touches on a major health care cost-control bill, there is still one big question: How much could it save? A recent report claims employers and employees could see between $8 billion and $34.5 billion in savings over nine years.

3 May 2012

FDA approval of TDF/FTC as PrEP for HIV infection receives support

In public comments submitted this week, a group of 14 leading HIV/AIDS and health organizations stated their support for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of emtricitabine/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF/FTC or Truvada) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection in adult men and women.

2 May 2012

World behind on pledge to reduce HIV/AIDS infections, improve treatment, U.N. report says

"The world is falling behind in its pledge to reduce HIV/AIDS infections and improve treatment, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a U.N. report released Monday" by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Associated Press reports.

2 May 2012

Cancer genomes in a common database and computation of disease drivers

The emerging field of "personalized" or "precision" medicine holds great promise in the fight against cancer. If scientists can identify the genetic changes that drive each patient's cancer cells, they can use that information to develop targeted treatments. But achieving this goal will require massive amounts of genomic and clinical data and a sophisticated infrastructure to manage and analyze the data.

2 May 2012

NIH study indicates safety of anti-HIV drug tenofovir during pregnancy

Infants born to women who used the anti-HIV drug tenofovir as part of an anti-HIV drug regimen during pregnancy do not weigh less at birth and are not of shorter length than infants born to women who used anti-HIV drug regimens that do not include tenofovir during pregnancy, according to findings from a National Institutes of Health network study.

2 May 2012

Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV is 'smart investment'

"Each year, nearly 400,000 children are born with HIV globally, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) is a particular challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, an area characterized by weak health systems," U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby writes in the State Department "DipNote" blog. "

2 May 2012

Roundup: Mass. premium increases muted; Iowa cuts payment to charity after fraud probe; Ga. asks EMS providers to save scarce drugs

State regulators on Monday approved third-quarter health insurance rates that will raise premiums an average of just 1.2 percent in the market serving small businesses and individuals, continuing a trend of more modest increases seen over the past three quarters. And several carriers, including Tufts Health Plan of Watertown and Fallon Community Health Plan, based in Worcester, will reduce their rates -- a rarity in Massachusetts health care -- according to data from the state Division of Insurance.

2 May 2012