Medicine & TechnologyHepatitis C is a life-or-death disease of the liver that's known to be prevalent in third-world countries. But, with a steep medication price, treatment is often times a luxury. But with new Indian-based pharmaceutical companies joining Gilead, that all may change in the near future.
New research has discovered that the drug Vyvanse, meant to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might also be effective in helping treat various binge eating disorders.
Novartis AG, a Swiss drug maker, is seeking U.S. regulatory approval for two new drugs designed to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), otherwise known as "smoker's cough". Approval of the drugs could generate an additional $1.4 billion for the company, while helping chronic smokers breathe a little clearer in the process.
Approvals for medicine in the United States have reached their highest levels in eighteen years, and recommendations for new drugs in Europe also came at a rapid rate, driven by expensive new treatments for cancer and other rare and serious diseases. After enduring wave after wave of patent losses on some of their larger, more popular drugs, pharmaceutical firms are beginning to recover by bringing new medicines to the market, while also improving their productivity.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the death of an otherwise healthy 17-year-old girl only highlights the severity of this year's influenza outbreak. Shannon Zwanziger seemed like a perfectly health teenager. She was active and rarely got sick; in fact, she had not even seen a doctor in more than three years. Then, she came down with the flu. Within only a week of fighting the virus, she was dead.
2014 proved to be a busy year for disease control experts around the world, as many viruses began to rear their heads like never before. Ebola, measles, mumps, and whooping cough, among others, have seen record outbreaks as health officials work to stay ahead of the potentially deadly diseases.
New research published online in the journal JAMA Psychiatry has revealed that a child is more likely to attempt suicide if his or her parents have attempted suicide in the past. In fact, children with parents who have attempted suicide are five times more likely to attempt it themselves, compared to children with parents who haven't attempted suicide.
The fight to stop Ebola continues to rage on across the world as researchers continue to find new ways to both detect and treat the deadly virus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved a new test to detect the virus in patients believed to be suffering from the virus.
The antibodies from the blood of survivors of the deadly disease may finally enable researchers to create a treatment that is effective against all the strains of the virus and stop its spread across Africa and the rest of the world.
After months of waiting and anticipation, the hepatitis C treatment price wars are finally getting under way. Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefits manager in the U.S., has released a new treatment from AbbVie as its exclusive treatment for patients with genotype 1, the most common form of the chronic disease. This drug covers 75% of the estimated 3.2 million Americans who are infected.
And this new drug will likely change the market for the hepatitis C treatments that are currently led by a pair of medications from Gilead Sciences which is likely to reach $20 billion in revenue next year thanks to demand for its treatments.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning that this year's flu season could be one of the worst to date. The CDC issued a warning on Friday that the flu season has started earlier than expected and is spreading rapidly. Already reaching 29 of the 54 states and territories, this year's flu is spreading faster than previously seen. In comparison, at the same time last year, it had only spread to four states.
For the past few months, researchers in the field of pharmacology and immunology have frantically struggled towards finding an effective treatment or cure to the 2014 Ebola outbreak. But it’s not entirely new research begin with in the first place. Since the original outbreak of Ebola in West Africa during the 1970’s, researchers at labs worldwide have tried unsuccessfully to study and cure the pestilent virus. So with the help of a little new knowledge, a global need knocking down the door, and a strong basis in creation of vaccines, researchers today are able to look towards a potential immunization practice that may better safe than sorry.
Despite the number of mixed results in gene therapy which has had its share of setbacks, drug company giant Pfizer Inc. is pushing through with its gene therapy project. This is backed by advancement in technology and better research facilities, and for its first project, a partnership with privately-owned biotech firm Spark Therapeutics.