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- Read more about Centre should act to limit use of antibiotics in livestock
The Indian Pharmaceutical Association's West Bengal chapter on Thursday urged the union health ministry to take steps to limit the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock in the wake of increasing antibiotic resistance in India.
- Read more about Use of oxytocin in dairying on Bengal drug controller's radar
West Bengal's drug controller has sounded an alarm on the indiscriminate use of pregnancy hormone oxytocin in dairying, which could lead to major hormonal imbalance in humans, an official said on Thursday.
- Read more about New blood cancer drug shows promise in clinical trial
A new drug can help patients with blood cancers who are resistant to current chemotherapy lead a normal and active life, show results of an international clinical trial, a first-in-man study of the drug.
- Read more about WuXi PharmaTech and Lilly announce strategic collaboration to develop novel therapeutic in China
WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Incand Eli Lilly and Company announced that they have entered into a strategic collaboration to develop, manufacture and commercialize a novel small molecule in China.
- Read more about Emotional bonding may lead to lower testosterone in men
Not just your wife, emotional relationships with siblings, friends, neighbours and co-workers can also result in lower testosterone levels as you age, researchers including an Indian-origin scientist report.
- Read more about FDA approves Cotellic as combination treatment for advanced melanoma
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Cotellic (cobimetinib) to be used in combination with vemurafenib to treat advanced melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body or can’t be removed by surgery, and that has a certain type of abnormal gene (BRAF V600E or V600K mutation).

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- Read more about DS Biopharma receive European patent covering the use of DS102 to treat fatty liver disorders
DS Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company, announced that its patent covering the use of bioactive active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) DS102 (15-HEPE) for fatty liver disorders has been granted by the European Patent Office (EPO).
- Read more about Indian vaccine for meningitis hailed in Africa
Five years after the introduction of MenAfriVac, an affordable vaccine for meningitis A produced by Indian firm Serum Institute of India, immunization has led to the near elimination of the deadly disease in Africa's 'meningitis belt', says the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.
- Read more about Abcam acquires US antibody research firm AxioMx
Abcam, a supplier of life science research tools, is to acquire AxioMx, an American antibody technology firm, for US$25m. The firm, based in Cambridge, UK has agreed the deal and will pay $20m to AxioMx with further performance payments of up to $5m over five years. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
The French firm presented its plan for the production of a universal flu vaccine at the World Vaccines Congress in Madrid. The company supplied over 220 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccines in 2014.
Olivier Charmeil, president and chief executive of Sanofi Pasteur says: "As the world's leader in the production of influenza vaccines, Sanofi Pasteur's ambition is to drive innovation and to shape the future by exploring several of the leading influenza vaccine strategies."

At the World Vaccine Congress, Dr Harry Kleanthous, Sanofi Pasteur’s associate vice president for research, discussed the potential for broader-spectrum flu vaccine approaches. This he said could lead to the development of a vaccine that stimulates protection against many influenza strains, unlike the current licensed vaccines that are designed to protect against three of four strains and often need to be changed every year, as dominant flu vaccine strains change and new strains emerge.

Kleanthous says: "We are actively exploring the development of a more-broadly protective influenza vaccine that will be designed to prevent the seasonal mismatches that can occur and that are not addressed using the current technology.

“They are complementary but can be considered 'tailored' antigens, in that they are designed to re-focus the immune response to key protective epitopes on the hemagglutinin, which is the active component of our currently licensed influenza vaccines," he continued. "These antigens are still a key player in any flu vaccine, since antibodies directed against them are responsible for preventing the flu virus from binding to and infecting the cell. Creating new antigens is a central theme in our strategy."

Sanofi Pasteur has an existing R&D collaboration agreement with the University of Georgia on a method that – according to Dr Kleanthous – could yield a novel, synthetic vaccine based on the hemagglutinin protein, designed to protect against seasonal influenza strains spanning several years, including strains not yet in existence.

Their experimental vaccine is a novel synthetic vaccine generated from key genetic sequences of many flu viruses, and is termed ‘computationally optimized broadly reactive antigen’ or COBRA, and is designed to protect against many strains over several years, due to the common sequences many flu viruses share.
Meanwhile London-based PepTCell, trading as SEEK, has also made moves in the manufacturing and production of a universal flu vaccine. SEEK has joined a collaboration with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), to jointly lead a study of SEEK’s universal flu candidate, FLU-v.
The trial will assess the safety and immunogenicity of a cross-seasonal universal flu candidate. In a ‘challenge’ trial where patients are first provided with the trial medication and then ‘challenged’ with a known pathogen.

Flu kills between 250,000 to 500,000 people globally every year. The annual vaccine has to be recreated and approved each year as the new season’s influenza virus strains emerge.

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