Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Inovio Pharmaceuticals first-quarter net loss attributable to common stockholders decreases to $2.3M

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

18 May 2010

Australian doctors identify new disease and devise its cure

A team of Australian doctors have identified a new disease and its cure. In their report published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases the doctors from The Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) report a case of a young NSW woman ill for almost a decade with repeated hospitalizations. She is now said to be suffering from a diseases that disabled the signaling processes of her immune system. The diseases is not named yet. Dr Maher Gandhi, head of QIMR's Immunohemotology Laboratory believes there are more cases of this disease. He said this Monday, “I haven't got a name for it other than T-cell signaling defect of which I assume there are quite a few different types… There are no recorded cases of this in the literature. Katie is unique ... I think we're at the tip of the iceberg here.”

17 May 2010

Argos Therapeutics presents AGS-004 autologous dendritic cell therapy Phase 2a trial data at 19th CAHR

Argos Therapeutics today announced the presentation of data from the Phase 2a trial of AGS-004, demonstrating that the personalized immunotherapy has a positive impact on the genetic diversity of residual HIV virus, and also results in substantially increased time to viral rebound in HIV patients treated with AGS-004 following antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruption.

17 May 2010

NanoViricides signs Research Agreement with UCSF for testing anti-HIV drug candidates

NanoViricides, Inc., announced that it has signed a Research Agreement with the University of California, San Francisco for testing of its anti-HIV drug candidates. Cheryl Stoddart, PhD, Assistant Professor in the UCSF Division of Experimental Medicine, will be the Principal Investigator.

17 May 2010

Inhibitex commences trials on INX-189 for treatment of Hepatitis C infections

The first clinical trials have started on a new investigational drug, discovered by researchers at Cardiff University, which is being developed to treat infections caused by Hepatitis C virus.

15 May 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

As the 193 WHO member states gather at next week's World Health Assembly (WHA) "a draft global code of practice on the international recruitment of health personnel will be on the agenda. Negotiation and adoption of a WHO code of practice is an unprecedented opportunity to advance global consensus to address the critical challenges of migration of health workers and its effect on health systems worldwide," the authors of a Lancet Comment write.

15 May 2010

U.S. healthcare practitioners can resume use of Rotarix, says FDA

GlaxoSmithKline announced that the Food and Drug Administration has determined that U.S. healthcare practitioners can resume the use of Rotarix (Rotavirus Vaccine, Live, Oral), effective immediately. This action supersedes the FDA's recommendation from March 22, 2010 and reflects the agency's assessment that the presence of porcine circovirus type 1 in the vaccine poses no safety risk.

15 May 2010

Data from RGN-259 study published in Archives of Ophthalmology

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today the publication of the first human data from a case study of patients evaluated with its ophthalmic product candidate RGN-259. The data have been published in the May 2010 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, an American Medical Association peer-reviewed journal.

14 May 2010

Scientists to discuss opportunities and challenges for combating HIV, TB

As alarms sound about a weakening international commitment to global AIDS, scientists will gather in Washington, DC to report on potentially transformative new tools in the battle against this deadly epidemic. US policy is moving backwards at a time when the science is more promising than ever.

14 May 2010

NanoViricides signs research and development agreement with Dr. Ken S. Rosenthal's laboratory

NanoViricides, Inc., reports that it has signed a research and development agreement with Dr. Ken S. Rosenthal's laboratory at Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy.

14 May 2010

Study examines impact of tobacco smoke carcinogen on mice

Although tobacco use is widely understood to be one of the leading causes of oral cancer, research on the prevention of tobacco-related oral cancer in experimental animals has traditionally been limited to examining the impact of synthetic carcinogens manufactured especially for cancer research, rather than on observing the effects of carcinogens that occur in tobacco smoke.

14 May 2010

Inhibitex reports net loss of $4.8M for first-quarter 2010

Inhibitex, Inc. today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. The Company also announced that it has initiated a Phase I single ascending dose trial of INX-189, its lead HCV nucleotide polymerase inhibitor, in healthy volunteers under an Investigational New Drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

14 May 2010

Rotavirus vaccination associated with decline in U.S. hospitalization rates for acute gastroenteritis: Study

Vaccinating infants against rotavirus, a leading cause of severe diarrhea and dehydration among babies and young children, was associated with a dramatic decline in U.S. hospitalization rates for acute gastroenteritis.

14 May 2010

DMC recommends Celsion to continue enrollment in ThermoDox clinical study for primary liver cancer

Celsion Corporation announced today that after reviewing data from 294 patients including data from 12 Japanese patients enrolled in the pivotal Phase III ThermoDox® clinical study (HEAT Study) for primary liver cancer, the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) has recommended that Celsion continue to enroll patients in the trial.

14 May 2010

Mild-mannered organelles can detect virus invasion signals: Researchers

Within cells, an ancient antiviral duo can deliver a one-two knockout to thwart invading viruses, report researchers who have just unmasked the cellular sidekick that throws the first punch. The findings mean scientists must rethink the design of antiviral immunity and how the body fends off viruses of all types, including influenza and HIV.

14 May 2010

Report of 2009 H1N1 influenza VLP vaccine published online

Novavax, Inc. announces the first report of a vaccine protecting ferrets against the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus has been published in the journal Vaccine May 12, 2010 online issue.

14 May 2010

UGA researchers discover SERS method to identify rotavirus strains, genotypes

Using nanotechnology and a patented signal enhancing technique developed at the University of Georgia, UGA researchers have discovered a rapid, sensitive and cost-effective method to detect and identify a number of rotavirus strains and genotypes in less than one minute with greater than 96 percent accuracy.

14 May 2010

Pharmasset prices underwritten public offering of common stock

Pharmasset, Inc. announced today the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,200,000 shares of its common stock at an offering price of $29.00 per share. Pharmasset expects to receive net proceeds, after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses, of approximately $87.9 million.

14 May 2010

HIV disease tends to progress at faster rate in infected individuals who consume more alcoholic drinks

HIV disease tends to progress at a faster rate in infected individuals who consume two or more alcoholic drinks a day, according to an important new paper in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

14 May 2010

Chimerix commences first-in-human study of CMX157 for HIV

Chimerix, Inc., a biotechnology company developing orally-available antiviral therapeutics, announced the commencement of a first-in-human study of CMX157, a novel lipid conjugate of the nucleotide tenofovir with in vitro activity against both tenofovir-sensitive and tenofovir-resistant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). CMX157 has the potential to increase efficacy and decrease toxicity as compared to tenofovir, and may enable the creation of new 'one pill, once-a-day', fixed-dose combination regimens for the treatment of HIV infection.

14 May 2010