All GLG News Analyses Filed Under: Infectious Disease

A recent study shows that the humanized monoclonal antibody Numax is non-inferior to the approved monoclonal antibody Synagis in reducing hospitalizations secondary to RSV infections in infants. Obviously, Synagis has a long term record of safety and efficacy in infants and young children while...

Vaccines stability questioned

This article shows that aggressive dosing of Vancomycin is not associated with improved outcome in elderly patients with pneumonia, but may be associated with increased renal toxicity.Implementation of aggressive hand washing policies for patients and health care professionals as well as strict isolation...

The main indication for Vancomycin today is MRSA infections not susceptible to other antibiotics.The concern with overuse of Vancomycin is the development of multi drug resistant organisms such as VRE (vanco resistant enterococcus).This emergence of multi drug resistent organisms is a major problem...

-Merck's Prevnar (strep pneumoniae) vaccine is approved in the US as a 4-dose schedule-This article in the Lancet found that 2 or 3 doses worked about as well as the 4-dose schedule currently approved in the US-This may allow expansion of use outside of the usual 1st world but is unlikely to cause a...

The fact that the incidence of community associated C diff infection is increasing and that many of these cases are not associated with antibiotic use or recent hospitalization is of concern epidemiologically. Continued infection is important to all of society because it will affect labor productivity,...

Short term (12 week) efficacy in a huge market.

Implications: 1. Various European countries (such as the Netherlands) have had great success in control of hospital-acquired MRSA infections. 2. Community-acquired MRSA is increasing in the United States and outbreaks of the more virulent CA-MRSA strains have occurred in hospitals here (imported from...

InterMune has filed a Clinical Trial Authorization with French authorities to start a phase I study of their HCV protease inhibitor ITMN-191. Preclinical studies have shown favorable anti-HCV efficacy and safety profile in animal models.

This is the publication of the single and dual-dose viral kinetic data of the first HCV protease inhibitor, BILN-2061, that were presented with great fanfare at the AASLD Liver Meeting several years ago.