Natasha Singer New York Times 07/08/2010 The $41 billion merger last year of the drug giants Merck and Schering-Plough has a human cost for pharmaceutical industry employees. Merck plans to lay off about 15 percent of its work force — about 15,000 people — over the next two years as part of a global merger restructuring, according to an announcement the company issued on Thursday. Merck said it also planned to close eight research and eight manufacturing sites worldwide. The restructuring is expected to save [...]

OneIndia.com 07/10/2010 Researchers are using computer programs to develop a fast and efficient method of generating vaccines for new strains of flu viruses. Dimitris Papamichail, and a team of researchers from Stony Brook University have created algorithms that will design viruses that serve as live vaccines, which are then synthesized to specification. The new method is called Synthetic Attenuated Virus Engineering (SAVE). “Our approach is not only useful for influenza; it is also applicable to a wide range of viruses,” said Papamichail. Read the rest [...]

Brain perfusion SPECT and EEG findings in children with autism spectrum disorders and medically intractable epilepsy http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20594786 Brain Dev. 2010 Jun 29. Sasaki M, Nakagawa E, Sugai K, Shimizu Y, Hattori A, Nonoda Y, Sato N. Department of Child Neurology, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP), 4-1-1 Ogawahigashi-cho, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8551, Japan. Abstract Objective: We performed brain perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to detect the abnormal brain region in children with both autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and medically intractable epilepsy. Methods: Fifteen children [...]

DAVID KILLICK themercury.com.au 07/04/2010 JUST 55 per cent of Tasmanian schoolgirls have taken up the offer of free vaccination against cervical cancer. Health authorities say they are surprised and disappointed at the low take-up rate. Although more than 100,000 Tasmanian women and girls have been vaccinated, acting public health director Chrissie Pickin said take-up of the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines had been slower than she had hoped. “You would think that with a new vaccine, a safe vaccine, able to protect your children against cancer, [...]

By Li Shuang Global Times 06/29/2010 Eight parents from five provinces whose children fell ill after receiving improperly stored vaccines were arrested Monday for protesting outside the gate of the Ministry of Health. They were warned by the police to stop protesting and released later in the day. The parents met outside the gate of the Ministry of Health, located near Xizhimen subway station, at around 10 am Monday, where they stood until noon, demanding to meet Chen Zhu, the Minister of Health. “Seeking justice [...]