Disease/Infection News

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Tight finances creates competition among AIDS researchers

As the economic downturn depresses global investment in AIDS prevention, scientists and those who fund them are struggling to set priorities among several competing research methods that could slow the spread of the disease, which causes about 2.7 million new infections worldwide a year, CQ HealthBeat reports.

8 Oct 2010

VentiRx announces VTX-1463 trial results for allergic rhinitis treatment

VentiRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel Toll-Like Receptor 8 (TLR8) candidates for the treatment of cancer, respiratory and inflammatory diseases, announced today results from its randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial evaluating VTX-1463 for the treatment of allergic rhinitis.

8 Oct 2010

NIAID announces three new contracts to fund research on dengue, anthrax vaccines

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced three new contracts to fund research on vaccines to protect against emerging infectious diseases and biological threats that could be used in a terror attack. Each project focuses on simple and efficient vaccine delivery approaches that could be deployed quickly. The total funding for the three contracts could reach $68 million, depending on the successful completion of defined project milestones.

8 Oct 2010

International scientific conference explores new approaches to prevent infectious diseases

Swine flu, cancer, bioterrorism and the latest trends in countermeasures to combat these life-threatening diseases and infections are among the topics to be discussed at the upcoming New Cells for New Vaccines V: Global Perspectives international scientific conference, on October 11-13 in Wilmington, Delaware, at the Hotel du Pont.

8 Oct 2010

Inviragen, PharmaJet awarded NIAID contract to develop needle-free, easy to administer dengue vaccine

Inviragen and PharmaJet announced the award of a five year, $15.5 million dollar contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to advance the development of a needle-free, easy to administer dengue vaccine. The award will fund preclinical studies, regulatory filings, manufacturing and clinical testing of Inviragen's tetravalent dengue vaccine, DENVax delivered with PharmaJet's convenient needle-free injection device.

8 Oct 2010

Increased global attention, research needs to be given to stroke prevention: UEA

Increased global attention and research needs to be given to stroke prevention and the social and economic effects of the condition in developing countries, according to an academic at the University of East Anglia.

8 Oct 2010

NIAID awards $6.25M to Profectus to optimize portfolio of genetic adjuvants

Profectus BioSciences, Inc., a technology based vaccine company devoted to the treatment and prevention of chronic viral diseases, today announced that it has received $6.25M in National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) grants and contracts.

8 Oct 2010

FDA files complaint for permanent injunction against Brooklyn Juice Company

At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice today filed a complaint for permanent injunction against a Brooklyn juice company to prevent it from processing and distributing juice products.

8 Oct 2010

CQ Healthbeat examines HIV prevention research funding

The global economy has affected HIV/AIDS prevention research, so "scientists and those who fund them are struggling to set priorities among several competing research methods that could slow the spread of the disease, which causes about 2.7 million new infections worldwide a year," CQ HealthBeat reports.

8 Oct 2010

HIV/AIDS needs more funding: Report

Experts have said that just controlling HIV and AIDS would require finances to the tune of $397bn and $733bn over the next 20 years and unless more money is spent the pandemic will continue to spread. They said that funds need to increase from 2009 otherwise the infections could rise from 2.3 million a year to 3.2 million by 2031. This appeared in a report by the aids2031 financing group, headed by the Results for Development Institute in Washington DC.

8 Oct 2010

Mass. attorney general recommends approval of Caritas sale; Calif. will require students to get whooping cough vaccine

Attorney General Martha Coakley yesterday recommended approval of the proposed sale of Caritas Christi Health Care to a New York private equity firm, a deal that would bring for-profit health care on a large scale to a state long dominated by nonprofit hospitals.

8 Oct 2010

Researchers develop algorithm to integrate genomic and metabolic data

Researchers at the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois have developed a way to harness the prodigious quantities of both genomic and metabolic data being generated with high-throughput genomics and other techniques. They have developed an algorithm that automatically integrates both data sets. The model, called probabilistic regulation of metabolism (PROM), enables researchers to perturb a given regulatory gene or metabolic process and see how that affects the entire network.

7 Oct 2010

GeoVax receives US Patent for pGA series of plasmids

GeoVax Labs, Inc., a biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines, has been issued via an exclusive license from Emory University, a US Patent for its "DNA expression vectors and methods of use. Issued on September 14, 2010, the patent claims cover novel vectors and novel HIV vaccine inserts.

7 Oct 2010

Researchers unveil clues to combat enteritis in humans

The bacterium Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of food poisoning in humans. It is normally transmitted from contaminted chicken meat, as it is frequently found in the intestines of chickens, where it apparently does not result in any symptoms. Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna have now solved the puzzle, showing that Campylobacter can survive ambient oxygen levels thanks to the presence of other bacteria, species of Pseudomonas.

7 Oct 2010

Vical to manufacture pDNA vaccines against HIV

Vical Incorporated today announced that the company has agreed to manufacture plasmid DNA (pDNA) vaccines against HIV under a $2.4 million contract with the IPPOX Foundation, a collaborating institution for the Poxvirus Vaccine Regimen Design (PVRD) led by the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) under the auspices of the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD).

7 Oct 2010

Privigen IVIg therapy effective for primary, secondary immunodeficiencies: Study

Privigen, the first and only 10% liquid intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) therapy stabilized with proline, is effective and well tolerated in patients with several primary and secondary immunodeficiencies, according to data presented today at the XIVth Meeting of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies. Results also demonstrate that Privigen offers significant protection against infection.

7 Oct 2010

Study explains importance of identifying global pandemic risk factors to predict spread of diseases

A recent study led by Dr. Parviez Hosseini, a senior research fellow from EcoHealth Alliance (formerly Wildlife Trust), explains the importance of identifying global pandemic risk factors as early as possible, in order to predict the spread of diseases like H1N1 "swine" flu and SARS. "Predictive Power of Air Travel and Socio-Economic data for Early Pandemic Spread," recently published in the scientific publication PLoS ONE, examines the interplay among travel, trade, and national healthcare resources in predicting the emergence and spread of H1N1 and other viruses.

7 Oct 2010

Donors pledge nearly $12b for Global Fund, missing lowest funding target

Donors at a replenishment meeting in New York on Tuesday pledged $11.7 billion over three years for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, "higher than past support but below the lowest target set by the agency in its efforts to combat disease in the developing world," the Financial Times reports.

7 Oct 2010

VAP bundle helps eliminate hospital-acquired infection

Critically ill patients on a breathing tube are at risk not only from their injuries or diseases, but also from infections they can contract in the hospital. One of the most common infections is pneumonia from breathing tubes. A study of a new multidisciplinary protocol that has all but eliminated such infections at one hospital was reported on today at the 2010 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.

7 Oct 2010

HHS partners with PEPFAR to invest $130M for African medical education

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is partnering with the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief with a plan to invest $130 million over five years to transform African medical education and dramatically increase the number of health care workers.

7 Oct 2010