IDM Pharma (NASDAQ:IDMI) announced today that the company has submitted an electronic New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Junovan(TM) (mifamurtide for injection), requesting approval for its use in the treatment of newly diagnosed resectable high grade osteosarcoma patients following surgical resection in combination with multiple agent chemotherapy.
The Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA has named University of Wisconsin’s Richard Davidson as the first recipient of The Mani Bhaumik Award. The award was established earlier this year to support scientists in the international community who advance the understanding of the brain and the conscious mind in healing through visionary research, books and education. Bhaumik, co-inventor of the laser technology that made LASIK surgery possible, has funded the annual $10,000 award.
Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved NOXAFIL(R) (posaconazole) Oral Suspension for the treatment of oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC), including infections refractory to itraconazole and/or fluconazole. OPC is a fungal infection of the mouth and throat caused by the yeast Candida. NOXAFIL is a novel triazole antifungal agent discovered and developed by Schering-Plough Research Institute.
Poor adherence to medication is a recognized medical problem, costing an estimated $100 billion a year in the United States.(i) New data show that while there is a steady decline in adherence to medications for ulcerative colitis (UC), drug formulation and the number of pills taken each day do not affect long-term adherence. The data were presented today at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology by University of Chicago researcher Sunanda Kane, M.D.
Women who carry a common parasite are more likely to give birth to boys, Czech researchers report. In most populations, 51 percent of babies born are male, Dr. S. Kankova of Charles University in Prague and colleagues note. But among a group of women infected with the bug Toxoplasma, 61 percent of babies born were boys.
Chronic Renal (Kidney) Failure is a fatal disease where bodily waste products (in the form of urine) collected in the body which leads to multiorgan failure. There are three procedures in modern medicine for such condition –
UT Southwestern Medical Center is one of a handful of top research institutions evaluating a promising new medication researchers hope can reduce the severity and frequency of asthma attacks in inner-city children, a population known to have a high prevalence of severe asthma.
GlaxoSmithKline (plc) today announced that a supply contract has been signed by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and GlaxoSmithKline for 8 million doses of GSK?s H5N1 antigen influenza vaccine and its proprietary adjuvant for pre-pandemic use. The order provides enough doses, one per head of the entire Swiss population, to help prepare the immune system against the threat of a human influenza pandemic and is the first national programme to do so. Supply and stockpiling of the pre-pandemic vaccine is expected in early 2007 once the Swiss regulatory agency, Swissmedic, has reviewed and approved GSK?s regulatory file.
Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Caribbean Primate Research Center have discovered a key mechanism by which the Filoviruses, Ebola and Marburg, cause disease. The identification of an amino acid sequence in Filoviruses that results in the rapid depression of immunological response is described in the December 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal. Using this information, researchers can begin to develop new drugs to stop these devastating diseases.
A new HIV study shows how competition among the human immune system’s T cells allows the virus to escape destruction and eventually develop into full-blown AIDS. The study, which employs a computer model of simultaneous virus and immune system evolution, also suggests a new strategy for vaccinating against the virus – a strategy that the computer simulations suggest may prevent the final onset of AIDS.