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GLG News by this Author
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Which Combination of Drugs for Influenza?
October 29, 2009
Triple-combo Drug Shows Promise Against Antiviral Resistant H1N1 | www.medicalnewstoday.com
All 3 of these drugs are approved for use. Rimantadine is usually interchangeable with amantadine and is less toxic. Ribavirin can have very nasty side effects. Not clear from the report is whether the company is marketing a use of all 3 drugs or whether they are packaging the 3 in one pill. It is a long way off to prove utility in human disease.
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Earlier Treatment Just Makes Sense
July 19, 2009
AIDS treatment should start sooner, study finds | news.yahoo.com
These data will help justify earlier treatment of patients infected with HIV, before damage to the immune system occurs.
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Will the new rapid test for C difficile be an important advance?
July 19, 2009
Rapid DNA Test to Detect Clostridium difficile Infection Approved by FDA Today | www.medscape.com
In patients with C difficile colitis, the usual situation is that when the diarrhea stops during or after treatment, isolation can stop. The biggest benefit of this new test is in validating preliminary identification of newly infected or relapsing patients so that isolation will be used appropriately.
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Inappropriate Antimicrobial Use is Not Only an American Problem
February 23, 2009
Irrational Use of Anti microbials | www.indmedica.com
Useful life of antibiotics will decrease as broad spectrum resistance occurs. Multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria will be increasingly seen and cause increasingly severe disease
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Earlier Treatment Just Makes Sense
January 16, 2009
AIDS treatment should start sooner, study finds | news.yahoo.com
These data will help justify earlier treatment of patients infected with HIV, before damage to the immune system occurs.
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Not only more cases, more severe cases
January 16, 2009
C. difficile Infections on the Rise | www.aacc.org
C. difficile infection is an increasing problem in hospitals and recurrences are more frequently being diagnoses in outpatients. Better diagnositics and therapies are needed to get this problem under control.
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February 26, 2008
Promising phase I/II data in HIV with once-daily NNRTI from Idenix | www.pipelinereview.com
A new NNRTI that overcomes class resistance and with a low threshold for development of resistance will be a useful addition to our antiretroviral armamentarium.
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New Approach for an Influenza Vaccine
January 14, 2008
Universal flu vaccine shows early promise | www.fiercebioresearcher.com
If early results are confirmed, this vaccine will revolutionize influenza immunization
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New Broad Spectrum Antibiotic - 2 New Phase 2 Studies
January 8, 2008
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals Initiates Two Phase 2 Studies for Novel Antibiotic Compound RX-1741 | www.pipelinereview.com
Successful completion of these studies in community acquired pneumonia and skin and soft tissue infection will hopefully lead to approval of an additional new drug active against drug resistant bacteria, such as MRSA.
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January 3, 2008
Ventilator-associated pneumonia - the wrong quality measure for benchmarking | www.annals.org
Hospitals and physicians are under increasing pressure to follow benchmarks or be penalized. When this happens and when already lean payments are cut further, how can that lead to an increase in quality?
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New Treatment for Chronic Hepatitis C Infection
January 2, 2008
GlobeImmune Announces Initiation of Phase II Clinical Trial of GI-5005 in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C | www.pipelinereview.com
This approach is different in that it makes use of the immune response to help clear the virus. As with all new drugs for this indication, it is being studied as an addition to standard therapy which is effective in gentoype 1 infection only about 50% of the time.
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Use of Pegylated Interferom and Ribavirin as Retreatment - No Advance
December 26, 2007
PegIntron and Rebetol Approved in European Union for Retreating Hepatitis C Patients Who Failed Previous Pegylated or Non-Pegylated Interferon Therapy | www.medicalnewstoday.com
Since there are no other treatments for relapse or non-response to first line anti-HCV therapy, this is the only option and a poor one at that.
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Atripla - A welcome addition to EUropean antiretroviral regimens
December 21, 2007
European Commission Approves ATRIPLA(R) (efavirenz 600 mg/emtricitabine 200 mg/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg), the First Once-Daily Single Tablet Regimen for Virologically Suppressed Adults With HIV-1 Infection | www.pipelinereview.com
Atripla will make prescribing the 3 individual drugs that make up this pill largely unnecessary. Compliance with therapy should improve.
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Is pramiconazole a breakthrough in the treatment of onychomycosis?
November 28, 2007
Barrier Therapeutics Announces Positive Results of Dose Escalation Clinical Safety Study With Pramiconazole | www.pipelinereview.com
The drug appears to work when given once a week. However, existing available azoles, like itraconazole and fluconazole also work when given at this schedule. The key to success of this drug is the side effect profile and it is too early to tell.
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Integrase Inhibitor a Welcome Addition for Treating HIV
September 10, 2007
FDA Advisory Committee Recommends Approval of Raltegravir | www.medscape.com
This new drug represents a new class of drug, a great benefit to people infected with multi-drug resistant HIV. In addition to its efficacy, it has little effect on other drugs, making it easier to give to people who have to take many drugs to control their disease.
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Another Discontinued Potential Hepatitis C Treatment
August 30, 2007
Potential safety issue identified in ongoing phase 2 clinical study of HCV-796 | www.pipelinereview.com
Yet another potential medication for the treatment of chronic Hepatitis C is stopped because of toxicity. This demonstrates the difficulty in developing new drugs for this indication. The low response rates of genotype 1 to combination pegylated interferon and ribavirin makes identification of new drugs critical.
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August 29, 2007
New Medicare Regulations Adopted To Reduce Certain Hospital Infections And Medical Errors | www.medicalnewstoday.com
Hospitals will be unfairly squeezed yet again making it more difficult to solve important problems. Infection Control, in particular, takes money to run and run well. Paying hospitals less money will result in less available for this important work. Has anyone thought about the implications of giving hospitals less compensation for medical care provided within their systems?
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February 21, 2007
FDA Restricts Use of Antibiotic | www.therapeuticsdaily.com
Ketek is one of many different antibiotics that can be used to treat respiratory infections. Why use a more toxic one than a safer one?
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January 19, 2007
Aggressive Vancomycin Dosing Unlikely to Boost Survival in MRSA Pneumonia | www.medscape.com
1. MRSA pneumonia is an increasingly common and very severe infection.
2. However, many patients diagnosed with this infection do not really have it.
3. Vancomycin may become less commonly used in treating this infection, paving the way for alternatives such as Zyvox to treat the infection. -
August 25, 2006
Antibiotics Not Warranted for Runny Noses | www.forbes.com
Yet another article documenting the lack of efficacy of antibiotics for non-bacterial illnesses. Despite this antibiotic usage continues at high levels for these sort of illnesses.
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