Pharma News

Aided by a high-powered brain scanner and a 3D printer, NIH researchers peered inside the brains of hundreds of multiple sclerosis patients and found that dark rimmed spots representing ongoing, “smoldering” inflammation, called chronic active lesions, may be a hallmark of more aggressive and disabling forms of the disease.

“The Health Ministry has drawn an ambitious plan under the 100-days agenda of the newly elected government, wherein it has been decided to provide Rotavirus vaccine to every child across all 36 states and UTs by September, 2019.” This was stated by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare while speaking on the expansion of Rotavirus vaccine to the entire country. The Union Health Minister further added that under the inspirational leadership of our beloved Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, the Government is committed to ending morbidity and mortality in children due to diarrhoea by 2022. Strengthening routine immunization is an essential investment in India’s children and will ensure a healthy future of the country, he stressed.

An early-stage clinical trial is evaluating two licensed seasonal influenza vaccines, administered with or without novel adjuvants, for their safety and ability to generate an immune response. Adjuvants are compounds added to vaccines to induce stronger and longer-lasting immune responses. The Phase 1 study is enrolling healthy adult volunteers at eight sites across the United States. The trial is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

A team of researchers from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health, and collaborating academic research institutions developed a method to measure a type of gene mutation involved in the evolution of cancer. This type of mutation, called “repeat instability,” may be useful in early cancer diagnosis. Findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval to Turalio (pexidartinib) capsules for the treatment of adult patients with symptomatic tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT) associated with severe morbidity or functional limitations and not responsive to improvement with surgery.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras have found a way to develop non-animal models to test new cancer drugs.

Esophageal cancer or cancer of the food pipe is among common cancers that occur in India. Every year some 47,000 new cases are reported and 42,000 people die due to this cancer. Its occurrence is particularly high in the north-eastern states. It is often diagnosed late as its symptoms are not very specific and patients are treated for other causes. In such a situation, early diagnosis can help save lives.

The Committee recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for Vitrakvi* (larotrectinib), the first ‘histology-independent’ treatment in the European Union for solid tumours with a neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusion. NTRK gene fusions occur very frequently in a number of rare cancers. For more information, please see the press release in the grid below.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Baqsimi nasal powder, the first glucagon therapy approved for the emergency treatment of severe hypoglycemia that can be administered without an injection.