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Obama administration expected to announce $4B pledge to Global Fund

The Obama administration is expected on Tuesday to announce a large increase in its pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and to call for reform of the organization," the Wall Street Journal reports.

6 Oct 2010

RDI launches HIV-TRePS system to predict patients’ response to HIV drugs

A ground-breaking system for predicting how individual patients with HIV and AIDS will respond to different drugs is launched today by RDI, a UK-based not-for-profit research group. The experimental system, called the HIV Treatment Response Prediction System (HIV-TRePS), is available free of charge over the Internet and helps physicians select the best treatment for their patients.

6 Oct 2010

AHF applauds Obama administration for reasserting U.S. leadership in contributions to fight global AIDS

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today lauded the Obama administration's announcement that it will seek $4 billion for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis over the next three years—a 38% increase over what has been provided in the previous three-year period. The U.S. also urged better management of grants by participating countries, as well as increased accountability and efficiency by the Global Fund.

6 Oct 2010

Global health fund to get big boost from U.S.

The Wall Street Journal: "The Obama administration is expected on Tuesday to announce a large increase in its pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and to call for reform of the organization. The pledge of $4 billion over the next three fiscal years to the Geneva-based organization comes as governments and donors around the world have slowed increases in spending to combat HIV/AIDS, with weaker economies straining budgets."

6 Oct 2010

Mass. hospital sale talks seeking to protect employee retirement plans; Conn. Gov. ask for waiver in preexisting insurance plan

Representatives of Caritas Christi Health Care, the private equity firm seeking to buy it, and the attorney general's office are working on a tentative agreement to protect the retirement plans of 13,000 employees and keep the chain's hospitals open for at least five years.

6 Oct 2010

Chevron Corporation raises $25 million for Global Fund

Chevron Corporation today announced that it will commit an additional $25 million to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, raising its 6-year investment in the organization to $55 million.

6 Oct 2010

Profectus BioSciences awarded $3.1M Fast Track SBIR grant to develop prophylactic vaccine against HIV

Profectus BioSciences, Inc., a technology based vaccine company devoted to the treatment and prevention of chronic viral diseases, today announced the award of a Fast Track SBIR from the Division of AIDS, National Institutes of Health for $3.1M to support the development of the Company's Transition State Vaccine (TSV) technology for a prophylactic HIV Vaccine.

6 Oct 2010

Altravax receives two SBIR grants for antibody-inducing vaccines research on HIV-1

Altravax, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded two SBIR grants totaling $1.2 million from the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for research on antibody-inducing vaccines for HIV-1.

6 Oct 2010

NSSHB study provides update on contemporary Americans' sexual behaviors

Findings from the largest nationally representative study of sexual and sexual-health behaviors ever fielded, conducted by Indiana University sexual health researchers, provides an updated and much needed snapshot of contemporary Americans' sexual behaviors, including a description of more than 40 combinations of sexual acts that people perform during sexual events, patterns of condom use by adolescents and adults, and the percentage of Americans participating in same-sex encounters.

5 Oct 2010

CPF honors three critical areas of leadership for Pulmonary Fibrosis community

The Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF) has announced its annual awards honoring three critical areas of leadership that impact the work of the Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF) community.

5 Oct 2010

FDA grants Matrix tentative approval under PEPFAR for Atazanavir Sulfate Capsules ANDA

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Matrix Laboratories Limited has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Atazanavir Sulfate Capsules, 150 mg and 300 mg. This product will be eligible for purchase outside the U.S. in certain developing countries.

5 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 5, 2010

Today's headlines include reports on the midterm elections and recent polls as well as the latest developments related to Medicaid expansion.

5 Oct 2010

Gen-Probe submits 510(k) application to FDA for APTIMA Trichomonas vaginalis assay on TIGRIS system

Gen-Probe Incorporated announced today that the Company has submitted a 510(k) application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its APTIMA® Trichomonas vaginalis assay on the fully automated TIGRIS® system.

5 Oct 2010

Researchers call for sustained funding to move HIV vaccine R&D ahead

At the AIDS Vaccine 2010 conference last week in Atlanta, researchers emphasized the need for sustained funding for vaccine research and development in order to further progress toward an HIV vaccine, SciDev.Net reports.

5 Oct 2010

Media examines PEPFAR hearing, calls for more HIV funding ahead of Global Fund replenishment meeting

Ahead of the replenishment meeting for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which kicks off today in New York, Inter Press Service examines the Obama administration's HIV/AIDS funding commitments.

5 Oct 2010

African leaders to meet in Zambia to discuss country responses to HIV/AIDS

Later this month, "[f]our former heads of state and other high-level African leaders who are the champions for a HIV/AIDS-free generation project" will travel to Zambia at the request of Zambian President Rupiah Banda for a meeting to discuss ways to strengthen the HIV/AIDS response in Africa, Times of Zambia/allAfrica.com reports.

5 Oct 2010

Opinions: MDGs; Obama's development policy; PEPFAR in Uganda

In a SciDev.Net editorial, David Dickson, director of SciDev.Net, examines progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, highlighting their usefulness as well as their shortcomings. "The value of the MDGs lies in the way they have acted as both a carrot and a stick to focus the efforts of both development agencies and governments of developing countries," according to Dickson, who writes that "the curse of the MDGs is that they focus on relatively short-term, concrete objectives, and lack sufficient 'buy-in' from the very countries they are intended to help.

5 Oct 2010

NIH announces it will share IP rights to some AIDS drugs in UNITAID Patent Pool

The NIH announced Thursday it will share intellectual property rights on some AIDS drugs in a patent pool designed to make treatments more widely available to the poor, Reuters reports.

4 Oct 2010

Research on immune system paves way to combat mother-to-infant HIV transmission

Researchers at Oregon Health &Science University may have uncovered a new weapon for combating HIV as it is passed from mother to newborn child. The research, which was led by researchers at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Center, will be published in the October 3rd online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

4 Oct 2010

Media outlets look ahead to next week's Global Fund replenishment meeting

Ahead of next week's replenishment meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in New York, IRIN/PlusNews examines the challenges associated with trying to ramp up programs worldwide to meet global health targets.

4 Oct 2010