Tag: pharmaceuticals
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FDA Approves Flu Vaccine Based on Engineered Viruses
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new seasonal flu vaccine using a technology that engineers flu virus proteins, rather than the traditional methods of growing inactive viruses in eggs. Flublok, developed by Protein Sciences Corp. of Meriden, Connecticut was approved by the FDA for adults age 18 through 49. Flublok is based on…
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Generic HIV Drugs Save Money, But Could Impair Effectiveness
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Yale University in New Haven calculate that switching generic for branded HIV drugs would provide substantial financial savings, but could impede the treatments’ effectiveness. The team’s findings appear in today in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine (paid subscription required).…
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Clinical Trial of Early Stroke Stent Device Underway
Covidien, a medical device company in Mansfield, Massachusetts, began enrolling paitents in a clinical trial to test its stent-based technology used with standard clot-dissolving techniques for patients in early stages of a ischemic stroke. The first of 800 patients in the trial was recruited at University at Buffalo in New York. Ischemic stroke occurs when…
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Simulation Seeks Clues to Motivations for Vaccination
Researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina used an online computer game to simulate an infectious disease epidemic and better understand the motivations behind getting or avoiding preventive actions. The work of Wake Forest economists Frederick Chen, Amanda Griffith, Allin Cottrell, and computer scientist Yue-Ling Wong appear this week in the online journal…
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Weill Cornell, Tres Cantos Lab to Research TB Chemistry
Weill Cornell Medical College in New York will provide a microbiologist to work at Tres Cantos Open Lab, a facility of GlaxoSmithKline in Spain, to identify the ability of chemical compounds to penetrate the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Financial aspects of the two-year project, funded by the Tres Cantos Open Lab Foundation, were not disclosed. The…
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Potential Cause of Statin-Produced Muscle Pain Revealed
Researchers at Copenhagen University in Denmark identified a possible cause for muscle pain encountered by people taking a leading statin drug for control of cholesterol. The team from the university’s Center for Healthy Aging, led by Flemming Dela, reported its findings in this month’s issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology. Statins are…
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Trial Fails to Show Biogen Idec ALS Drug Efficacy
Biogen Idec, a biotechnology company in Weston, Massachusetts, reported the clinical trial of a drug to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) did not meet its main objectives. Based on these results, the company decided to stop further development of dexpramipexole, the drug tested in the trial. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a…
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Patient-Doctor Communication Linked to Patients Taking Meds
Medical researchers at University of California in San Francisco and the health plan Kaiser Permanente found patients who feel their doctors involve them in decisions and understand their problems are more likely to take their medications as prescribed. The team that included researchers from University of Washington in Seattle, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Veterans…
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Statistical Tools Sought for Smaller Placebo Group Sizes
A new challenge on InnoCentive seeks a technique for reducing sizes of placebo group samples in clinical trials — patients who do not receive the test treatments, to whom the patients getting the treatments are compared — without compromising the ability to interpret the results. Proposals describing the solution to this challenge are due by…
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FDA Extends Flu Therapy Approval for Infants
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the prescription of oseltamivir phosphate to treat acute, uncomplicated influenza in children as young as two weeks in age. Oseltamivir phosphate, developed by Genentech, a division of the pharmaceutical company Roche in South San Francisco, California, is marketed under the brand name Tamiflu. Tamiflu blocks the…