February 2016

Influenza commonly known as "flu” can hide itself undetected in an individual's body by the person's immune system, reveals a study. The influenza virus that affects mainly the nose, throat, bronchi and occasionally lungs contains a protein that helps in outsmarting the immune system which can track viruses and alert the body of the entry of foreign virus into the human cells to multiply.

A single dose of the drug zoledronic acid was found to inhibit bone loss that is common in HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART), according to results of a phase two clinical trial.

South Asian countries should jointly tackle anti-microbial resistance that has arisen due to overuse and misuse of antibiotics, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda said on Tuesday.

Sanofi announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the New Drug Application (NDA) for its investigational fixed-ratio combination of basal insulin glargine 100 Units/mL and GLP-1 receptor agonist lixisenatide for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes.

formulation approved dose, tolerability and immunologic efficacy, investigational new formulation Astellas Pharma Inc. and Medivation, Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) that they have submitted for XTANDI® (enzalutamide) capsules in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), which includes findings from the Phase 2 TERRAIN and STRIVE studies, to update the relevant clinical sections within the current indication. Enzalutamide is approved by the FDA for the treatment of patients with mCRPC.

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced top-line results from the company’s Phase 3 pivotal trial, ONCEMRK. ONCEMRK is evaluating an investigational once-daily formulation of ISENTRESS® (raltegravir), known as raltegravir 600 mg (to be given as 2 x 600 mg once-daily), for previously untreated HIV-1 infected adults.

Vericel Corporation , a leading developer of patient-specific expanded cellular therapies for the treatment of severe diseases and conditions, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Company's Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) supplement for Epicel® (cultured epidermal autografts) to revise the labeled indications of use to specifically include pediatric patients and to add pediatric labeling.  The revised product label also specifies that the probable benefit of Epicel, mainly related to survival, was demonstrated in two Epicel clinical experience databases and a randomized, controlled, independent physician-sponsored study comparing outcomes in patients with severe burns treated with Epicel and standard care compared to standard care alone.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has sought concrete measures against diminishing efficacy of antibiotics which, if it continues, will make bacterial infections such as skin sores and diarrhoea untreatable and fatal.

Swedish researchers have developed a new magnetic imaging technique that utilises sugar to assess the malignancy of tumours in cancer patients.