Two weeks ago, the NIH and FDA had their say to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on how to enable those agencies to most effectively speed the development of new drugs and devices.
Genetically modified foods have the dubious distinction of being the scientific topic with the widest opinion gap between scientists and the lay public. In a report on "Public and Scientists' Views about Science and Society," 88 percent of scientists, but only 37 percent of the general public, believed that genetically modified foods were generally safe to eat.
Immunotherapy can deliver remissions that last long enough to make the most hardened oncologist consider the possibility that their patient might be cured. But only a minority of patients responds to immunotherapy at all.
Immunotherapy can deliver remissions that last long enough to make the most hardened oncologist consider the possibility that their patient might be cured. But only a minority of patients responds to immunotherapy at all.
Populations in Ebola-ravaged West Africa may face the next threat to their health – by a disease that is also making a small-scale, if much-noted, comeback in the U.S.: measles.
Antibodies have exquisite specificity for their antigens, a quality that has led to their use to target other payloads to specific cell types. When they are targeted to other biological or chemical molecules, antibodies can deliver cargo to only those cell types that express a specific surface receptor.
"There are people even today who still have trouble thinking about doing investigative studies in children with dread disease," Crystal Mackall told the audience at a recent talk at the NIH. "It's sometimes easier to say, 'Well, they're a vulnerable population, and maybe you'll be pushing an ethical boundary doing an investigational study.'"
Several studies have shown surprising effects of antidepressants in patients with cardiovascular problems. A paper published in the March 5, 2015, issue of Science Translational Medicine indicated that the antidepressant Paxil (paroxetine, Glaxosmithkline plc) was better than beta blockers at treating heart failure after an experimental heart attack in mice.
As the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met today to decide which flu strains to include in next year's vaccine, no one would argue that the process worked well last year.
