Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

GSK to offer scientists access to compounds, lab space to fight malaria

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)'s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty on Tuesday unveiled the company's plans to allow "free access to its library of 13,500 potential malaria treatments and devote the profits from its experimental [RTS,S] vaccine to battling tropical illnesses that beset poor countries," Bloomberg reports (Randall, 1/20).

21 Jan 2010

Xbrane Bioscience signs licensing arrangement with Vaxiion Therapeutics

The Swedish biotech company Xbrane Bioscience and the San Diego based biotech company Vaxiion Therapeutics, Inc. have announced that they have reached a licensing arrangement granting Xbrane Bioscience rights to Vaxiion’s proprietary protein production system – the Rhamex System™.

21 Jan 2010

QuantRx Biomedical's developments in genetics-based technology

QuantRx® Biomedical Corporation, a broad-based diagnostic company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative diagnostic products, today provided an update from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Walter Witoshkin on its involvement in genetics-based personalized medicine and disease prevention.

20 Jan 2010

HPV vaccine will reduce number of cervical cancer cases in women under 30

The number of women under 30 diagnosed with cervical cancer will fall nearly two thirds by 2025, thanks to the HPV vaccine.

20 Jan 2010

Over 44% of internet Viagra is counterfeit

Research by UK, Swedish and American researchers shows that taking internet drugs can kill and bypassing health systems can leave life-threatening problems undiagnosed. It's estimated that 90% of counterfeit drugs are sold on the internet, 44% of internet Viagra is fake, the global sale of counterfeit drugs will reach $75 billion this year and EU seizures have risen dramatically. Counterfeit drug deaths include men who took fake erectile dysfunction drugs, pregnant women injected with fake iron for anaemia and children who took paracetamol syrup contaminated with antifreeze.

20 Jan 2010

UCI finding could complicate quest to eradicate deadly disease in humans

Chimpanzees were known to carry the parasite Plasmodium reichenowi, but most scientists assumed the two parasites had existed separately in humans and chimpanzees for the last 5 million years.

20 Jan 2010

Liquidia Technologies completes $20M Series C financing round

Liquidia Technologies, a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing particle-based vaccines and therapeutics, today announced it has completed a $20 million round of Series C financing. Canaan Partners led the Series C round, which also included Pappas Ventures and Morningside Venture Investments Limited as new investors. Previous investors, including New Enterprise Associates and Firelake Capital, also participated in the financing round.

20 Jan 2010

Media outlets examine efforts to develop malaria vaccines

Scientists have identified a group of proteins they say could form the basis of a malaria vaccine, Australia's ABC News reports. "However, they say more laboratory work and clinical trials need to be done, with a vaccine at least 10 years away," the news service reports (Macey, 1/19).

20 Jan 2010

Fraunhofer USA CMB receives $60,000 gift from ProTecs to complete vaccine manufacturing plant

The Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology, a not-for-profit, 501 (c3) research organization, announced today that it has received a $60,000 gift from ProTecs, Inc., to complete its new, state of-the-art vaccine manufacturing plant in Newark, Delaware.

20 Jan 2010

Merck’s initiation of EMD 1201081-cetuximab combination Phase 2 trial triggers €3.0M milestone payment

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that it has achieved a milestone under its worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The milestone was achieved upon initiation of a Phase 2 trial by Merck KGaA of EMD 1201081, a novel agonist of Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLR9), in combination with cetuximab (Erbitux®) in second-line cetuximab-naïve patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

20 Jan 2010

Global health care errors, fraud costs $260b annually, report finds

A report released Monday finds $260 billion - or 5.59 percent of annual global health spending - is lost annually to health care errors and fraud, Reuters reports. For the study, the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network (EHFCN) and the Center for Counter Fraud Services (CCFS) at Britain's Portsmouth University, "reviewed 69 exercises in 33 organizations in six countries to measure healthcare fraud and error losses," the news service reports.

20 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

Scarab Genomics launches White Glove IS Detection Kit

Scarab Genomics has now launched the White Glove IS Detection Kit to test for the presence of transposable Insertion Sequence (IS) elements in a DNA of interest. Numerous IS elements are naturally present in the genomes of E. coli strains commonly used for protein and plasmid production, but are not present in the Scarab Genomics Clean Genome® strains.

19 Jan 2010

Access to clean water remains an issue for victims and Haiti earthquake volunteers

Six days after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti the health and sanitation situation is still less than optimal in the makeshift camps. "Access to shelter, sanitation, water, food and medical care remains extremely limited," announced Riccardo Conti on a bulletin yesterday from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC's).

19 Jan 2010

Circassia commences Phase II trials of its T-cell vaccines against house dust mite and cat allergies

Circassia Ltd, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on allergy, today announced that it has initiated phase II clinical trials of its T-cell vaccines targeting house dust mite and cat allergies. With the start of these studies, and the ongoing trial of Circassia's ragweed allergy (hay fever) T-cell vaccine, the company now has three clinical development programmes in phase II.

19 Jan 2010

CSafe and AcuTemp Thermal Systems offer temperature controlled containers for the Haitian relief effort

AcuTemp Thermal Systems, www.acutemp.com, a manufacturer of active and passive containers for transporting temperature sensitive pharmaceutical and bio-medical products; and CSafe, LLC, www.csafellc.com, a provider of active container solutions for the temperature sensitive airfreight market, are offering relief agencies their temperature controlled containers for use in shipping and storing blood, vaccines and other critical temperature sensitive medical supplies for the Haitian relief effort.

19 Jan 2010

New findings support the development of vaccine against malaria

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have uncovered a group of proteins that could form the basis of an effective vaccine against malaria.

19 Jan 2010

New book on harnessing science and innovation to tackle challenges in poor countries

Science and Innovation for Development demonstrates how science and innovation can be harnessed to tackle today's biggest challenges in poor countries, including climate change, HIV/AIDS and illiteracy. Case studies are described, including the use of tissue culture to develop disease-resistant bananas in Kenya; the use of nanotechnology to develop cheaper and faster kits for diagnosing infectious diseases and the use of organic material to power a multi-purpose stove that can also function as a refrigerator and generator.

18 Jan 2010

PATH MVI announces collaboration in development of malaria TBV

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) today announced a new collaboration to initiate development toward a vaccine that may eventually help eliminate and eradicate malaria. This collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) and the Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) marks MVI's first investment in transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs). This vaccine approach aims to stop the malaria parasite from developing in the mosquito, effectively blocking transmission of malaria from mosquitoes to humans. Malaria kills nearly 900,000 people per year, most of them children younger than age five.

18 Jan 2010