A TEAM of researchers led by scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has developed a new treatment for tuberculosis (TB), which could has the potential to be scaled-up and mass-produced for clinical testing. The treatment, which patients would take using an inhaler, works by reducing the bacteria in the lungs that causes tuberculosis while also helping the patient's immune system fight the disease. TB was prevalent in Ireland in the early-to-mid 20th century. Today it remains common in some parts of the world, especially Africa and South-East Asia."Tuberculosis is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide," according to the World Health Organization (WHO). "Ten million people fell ill with TB and 1.6 million died from the disease in 2017." Funded by the Health Research Board and the Royal City of Dublin Hospital Trust, the research is published in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics & Biopharmaceutics. Dr Gemma O'Connor and Prof Sally-Ann Cryan of RCSI led … [Read more...] about New medicine could treat hundreds of thousands of patients with tuberculosis
Developing new medicines
UK doctors win battle with drug giants over cheaper eye medicine
ZURICH (Reuters) - Drug giants Novartis, Bayer and Roche on Friday lost a bid to stop British doctors from recommending a cheaper drug option for people with an eye disease that causes blindness, the High Court in London ruled. A drug industry group said the decision was “extraordinary” and was bad news for future regulatory cooperation between Britain and the European Union after Britain’s exit from the bloc next year. The companies had sought to block doctors from 12 health groups in the north of England from making Roche’s cancer therapy Avastin the preferred option for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), even though it is not licensed for this use. Avastin works similarly to Bayer’s Eylea and Roche’s and Novartis’s Lucentis, but those drugs were made specifically for the eye. “Treating clinicians can lawfully choose Avastin for opthalmic use on grounds of cost,” according to the ruling. It added that NICE, the … [Read more...] about UK doctors win battle with drug giants over cheaper eye medicine
Health insurance should cover new medicine for Hepatitis C patients
A hepatitis patient receives treatment at Bach Mai Hospital.(Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Health experts have called on the Health Ministry to add direct-acting antiviral Agents (DAAs) into list of drugs that public health insurance covers so patients with Hepatitis C are treated more effectively. DAAs or new combinations of drugs directly target the hepatitis C virus in different ways to stop it making copies of itself. DAAs promise shorter treatment times, much higher cure rates and fewer side effects. Assistance Professor Dr Do Duy Cuong, head of Infection Department under Bach Mai Hospital, spoke about the new medicine at a July 24 meeting marking World Hepatitis Day (July 28). Cuong said that currently, there were 50 types of DAAs and the cure rate reached up to 95 percent. However, cost treatment using DAAs was high while public health insurance participants did not have health insurance pay for the medicine, Cuong said, adding that 90 percent of patients with … [Read more...] about Health insurance should cover new medicine for Hepatitis C patients
When Will I Die? Scientists Develop New Blood Test That Could Reveal Life Expectancy
Health Life Expectancy Life is short, the saying goes, and exactly how much time we have before we shuffle off this mortal coil is anyone’s guess. But this uncertainty could be consigned to history, according to the creators of a blood test they claim predicts a person's life expectancy. The test measures what the scientists at Yale University call a person’s “phenotypic age,” The Guardian reported. Put simply, if a person’s phenotypic age is higher than their chronological age, they may be at greater risk of dying. It works by measuring nine biomarkers in the body, the authors wrote in a paper published in the biological sciences archive bioRxiv. The paper was not peer-reviewed. Dr. Morgan Levine, assistant professor of pathology at Yale School of Medicine, explained to The Guardian the test can identify differences in life expectancy between individuals who are seemingly healthy. The team defined "healthy" as being free of disease … [Read more...] about When Will I Die? Scientists Develop New Blood Test That Could Reveal Life Expectancy
New data sources pose ethical conundrum for AI
Industry data miners are increasingly using non-traditional data to predict health outcomes, raising new challenges in complying with global privacy rules. With the growth in use of AI and machine learning, experts at a Health Datapalooza panel last week said using data that don't come straight from an EHR — like social media or demographics — also opens up a new box of ethical issues. Technologists developing AI tools for healthcare must "completely re-engineer" their data flows around de-identified data to avoid regulatory hurdles, Stanley Crosley, an attorney who chairs the data privacy and health information governance team at Drinker Biddle, said. That presents technologists with a challenge, as de-identifying healthcare data from a patient's pacemaker or insulin pump, Crosley argued, strips that data of revelatory information. "As a friend of mine said, often in the U.S., when you are looking at data, it's either de-identified or … [Read more...] about New data sources pose ethical conundrum for AI