Essential Medicines News

“Scientists Identify New Leads for Treating Parasitic Worm Disease,” Eurekalert, 16 March 2008.
Nature Medicine has published a study showing that oxadiazoles can effectively control schistosomiasis. For the past two decades, praziquatel has been the sole drug used to treat this disease in the 70 tropical nations that require annual or semi-annual drug treatment. […]

“New Chemical Can Kill Latent Tuberculosis,” Weill Cornell News, 13 March 2008.
A new drug tested by researchers at Weill Cornell inhibits the action of dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase (DlaT), a bacterial enzyme that is used to procure energy from nutrients and defend against oxidative damage. Dr. Carl Nathan, coauthor of the study published in Cell Host […]

“Microbicide Developer Receives License for Novel HIV Microbicide Candidate from Merch & Co., Inc.,” International Partnership for Microbicides Press Release, 11 March 2008.
Merck has agreed to provide a full royalty-free license for L’644, a gp41 fusion inhibitor, to the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) for development as a potential vaginal microbicide for women in […]

“Inhaled Tuberculosis Vaccine More Effective than Traditional Shot in Study Using Experimental Animals,” Harvard School of Public Health Press Release, 12 March 2008.
A study by University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill researchers, Medicine in Need, the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, and Harvard University researchers has been published in the past issue of the Proceedings of […]

“Newly Developed Anti-Malarial Medicine Treats Toxoplasmosis,” University of Chicago Press Release, 5 March 2008.
A recent article in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases shows that an anti-malarial entering clinical trials appears to be 10 times more effective than the standard treatment for toxoplasmosis, a disease that affects nearly two billion people worldwide.
The drug, JPC-2056, […]

“Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, PATH To Open Vaccine Center To Expedite Malaria Vaccine Testing,” Kaisernetwork.org, 6 March 2008.
The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI) have plans to establish the Human Challenge Center to test the safety and efficacy of malaria vaccine candidates for human use. Ken Stuart, […]

Caroline Alphonso, “Protein May Lead to HIV Vaccine,” Globe and Mail, 4 March 2008.
A recent article, published in Nature Medicine, takes a look at the role of the protein, FOX03a, in the survival of memory cells in “elite controllers”, HIV-positive individuals who naturally maintain viral loads at or below the limits of infection. […]

Lawrence Altman, “Tests of Drug to Block H.I.V. Infection Are Halted Over Safety” New York Times,  1 February 2007.
The microbicide trials involved a chemical, cellulose sulfate or Ushercell. One of the latest trials found an increased risk of H.I.V. infection among women who used cellulose sulfate compared with those who used a placebo gel. The decision to […]

“Scientists develop cost-effective nuclear medicine kit” Press Trust of India, 28 January 2007.
The Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, under the Defence Research and Development Organisation, has developed a kit with a radiation dose less than that of a CT scan to detect and locate bacterial infections throughout the body. The kit has been […]

Linda Johnson, “Drug makers doing better on study info,” Associated Press, 10 January 2007.
Medical journals have been pressuring pharmaceutical companies to make their clinical studies available to the public for general review, to reduce the bias in publishing only the studies that support the use of a drug. In 2006, only 8% of […]