A trial of a new vaccine against meningococcal disease, a cause of meningitis and blood poisoning, has found that it is safe and induces a strong immune response across five strains of meningococcal bacteria: A, C, W, Y and X. The phase 3 trial compared the immune response generated by the new pentavalent vaccine NmCV-5 against that of the licensed quadrivalent MenACWY-D vaccine in 1,800 healthy participants aged 2–29 in Mali and The Gambia. After 28 days, across all ages, the immune responses generated by a single dose of NmCV-5 were generally higher than those generated by MenACWY-D. In addition, NmCV-5 induced a strong immune response to the emerging meningococcal X strain for which there is currently no licensed vaccine. The trial found no safety concerns with NmCV-5. The study, led by a team including researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit, The Gambia, at the London School of ...
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a case where the death of an apparently healthy infant before their first birthday remains unexplained even after thorough investigation. Death generally seems to occur when infants are sleeping. While rare, it is the leading post-neonatal infant death in the United States today, occurring in 103 out of 100,000 live births a year. Despite the initial success of national public health campaigns promoting safe sleep environments and healthier sleep positions in infants in the 1990s in the United States, rates of cases have remained the same over the last three decades. Researchers here collected tissue from the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office related to infant deaths between 2004 and 2011. They then examined the brain stems of 70 infants who died during the period and tested them for consistent abnormalities. They found that the serotonin 2A/C receptor is altered in sudden infant death cases ...
Fever was found to be the most common non-respiratory feature of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to research published at the ATS 2023 International Conference. The finding held true regardless of which COVID variant patients had, and whether or not they were fully vaccinated or not fully vaccinated. The researchers, who also looked at mortality risk, found that patients who were not fully vaccinated had a higher risk of dying when infected with either the Omicron or Delta variant. The study was based on the examination of the University of California Health Covid Research Data Set’s (UC CORDS) medical records of 63,454 patients who had been treated in a University of California medical center for COVID-19. The scientists applied statistical tests to determine the relationship between non-respiratory features, vaccination status and differences in mortality between infection with the Omicron and Delta variants. We determined that we ...
By Tyler Patchen News Reporter https://endpts.com/fda-warns-sure-biochem-over-quality-and-data-issues/ A warning letter has been given to a company that tests finished drug products over several quality issues. The FDA issued the warning letter to Sure-BioChem Laboratories, a Camden, NJ-based contract test laboratory that does microbial testing on products including finished drugs. Sure-BioChem was inspected late last year, but the regulator has advised the company that it still needs to make some corrections. The letter said that inspectors found that the company had failed to establish and follow procedures for some of its tests and it had not validated its use of “alternative microbial methods” used to test drug products to ensure that its methods were “Specifically, you failed to adequately establish that your microbiological testing methods can reliably detect objectionable microorganisms,” the letter said. Sure-BioChem’s methods also failed to detect Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) bacteria and reported “not detected” to a client. The ...
By Kate Goodwin https://www.biospace.com/ Pictured: Blue Roche logo on white building/Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Roche has terminated a second Phase II trial of its investigational schizophrenia drug ralmitaront, leaving an uncertain future for the company’s program targeting the psychiatric disorder. The first trial, which was canceled last year, was studying the effects of ralmitaront as a monotherapy in patients with an acute exacerbation of positive symptoms of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The second trial, which was recently terminated, was investigating the impact of the treatment on negative symptoms associated with the two conditions. “In a preliminary analysis, the primary endpoint was negative, and ongoing portions of the study have therefore been discontinued,” according to an update on the second Phase II trial posted to the ClinicalTrials.gov website. Roche’s latest first quarter 2023 pipeline presentation included the asset, pushing its New Molecular Entity submission back into the “2026 and beyond” category. No ...
Dive Brief: Growth in parts of the orthopedic market will start to normalize late this year as surgeons work though a backlog of cases that had been postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, analysts at Needham wrote. The analysts expect hip growth to normalize late this year and the knee and spine markets to slow down by the end of 2024. In the trauma and extremities market, the analysts see potential for “above-normal growth for some time.” A slowdown in capital spending by hospitals, currency fluctuations and supply chain issues are among factors the analysts said could hurt revenue for a number of the orthopedic companies. Dive Insight: Orthopedic companies have made a fast start to 2023, with Zimmer Biomet’s CEO saying “pretty much everything went better than expected” in the first quarter and an analyst admitting to being “kind of blown away by how good the growth rates were in ...
Just two months after Emergent BioSolutions made history by winning the FDA’s blessing to sell its opioid reversal medicine over the counter, a new treatment option has arrived in Indivior’s Opvee. The nod, which covers Opvee’s use in people 12 years of age and older, marks the first approval for the medicine’s active ingredient in nasal spray form. The molecule, nalmefene hydrochloride, was first approved in the 1990s in an injectable format but was later pulled from the market in 2008. This time around, the FDA endorsed the drug based on new evidence that it can help combat rising overdose rates in the U.S. Indivior, which closed its purchase of Opiant in March and picked up the medicine in that buyout, plans to launch Opvee in the fourth quarter of 2023. The FDA’s approval comes as overdoses attributable to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are on the rise, with more ...
The biology underpinning a rare genetic mutation that allows its carrier to live virtually pain-free, heal more rapidly and experience reduced anxiety and fear, has been uncovered by new research from UCL. The study, published in Brain, follows up the team’s discovery in 2019 of the FAAH-OUT gene and the rare mutations that cause Jo Cameron to feel virtually no pain and never feel anxious or afraid. The new research describes how the mutation in FAAH-OUT “turns down” FAAH gene expression, as well as the knock-on effects on other molecular pathways linked to wound healing and mood. It is hoped the findings will lead to new drug targets and open up new avenues of research in these areas. Jo, who lives in Scotland, was first referred to pain geneticists at UCL in 2013, after her doctor noticed that she experienced no pain after major surgeries on her hip and hand. ...
Unlocking the potential of human genetics is key to many advances in the biopharma industry. From immunotherapies that treat cancer to potential cures for rare diseases to mapping the genome for incredible medical discoveries, researchers have still only scratched the surface of what is possible in gene science. Just last week, the FDA approved the first-ever gene therapy that can be applied directly to the skin to treat patients known as “butterfly children” because of how fragile their skin can be. These kinds of forward-thinking medicines have come about due to the ever more advanced understanding of how genetics cause certain conditions. And early research in the genetic space — even that which might not appear directly related to medicine — has given scientists the tools to make better treatments down the road. Some of those treatments are on their way to helping patients soon. One cell therapy in late-stage ...
A combined investment of £11.2m that includes a prosperity partnership grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and funds from AstraZeneca (AZ) has enabled researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, Imperial College London and AZ to discover new ‘molecular glues’ to treat multiple diseases. Widely used as protein degraders, molecular glues bring together proteins that would not usually interrelate. The glues manage the modification and degradation of disease-causing target proteins by redirecting them to the cell’s natural waste disposal system. By facilitating the interaction between target protein and a cellular enzyme, the target protein is deactivated or broken down by additional proteins that are recruited by the enzyme. Group leader at the Crick Institute, Ed Tate, said: “Challenges arise when we can’t find a small molecule with the ability to interact with certain proteins. “If we can redirect these harmful proteins towards the cell’s own waste disposal ...
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