Category: Pharmaceuticals
“Inactive” drug compounds thought to cause unintended psychological effects flagged
Some biologically inactive compounds contained in drugs, called excipients, may lead to more unanticipated side effects than previously assumed. Scientists from the San Francisco School of Pharmacy, the University of California (UCSF), US, realised most currently used excipients have only […]
Israeli clinical trial shows the efficacy of microdosing THC to treat chronic pain
Minute doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – essentially the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis – have been shown to reduce pain sensation in a recent clinical experiment, without inducing psychoactive side effects. Israeli pharma-tech company Syqe Medical set out to try […]
Roche’s Tecentriq-chemotherapy combo now approved for treating aggressive type of lung cancer
The Singaporean Health Sciences Authority (HAS) has recently approved of global pharmaceutical giant Roche’s new immunotherapy treatment: Tecentriq® (Atezolizumab) will be used as first-line treatment of adults with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), after reports showed that the cancer […]
Stomach acid-withstanding peptide pills could be a new type of oral drug
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have recently developed a novel method of testing and creating peptides that can survive degradation by stomach acids – these could potentially make up oral drugs for chronic inflammatory diseases […]
New Ebola vaccine effective against all four virus species dangerous to humans
Infectious disease scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre (CCHMC) in Ohio, US, have recently tested a novel vaccine candidate for Ebola in animals, which seems to be effective against all four species of Ebola that infect humans. The new […]
International team finds trial drug that blocks early COVID-19 infection
A trial drug that appears to block the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 – the virus responsible for COVID-19 – uses to infect its hosts has been identified by a team of researchers from Canada, Spain and Sweden. The drug could very […]
Australian scientists find possible coronavirus treatment in FDA-approved drug
A present-day anti-parasitic drug has been shown to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic currently, in just two days. As observed by scientists at Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) and the Peter Doherty Institute […]
Australian agency starts “milestone” testing of potential COVID-19 vaccines
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has begun animal testing of two potential COVID-19 vaccines, which will determine if they would be safe to use on humans. The vaccines, one by UK’s University of Oxford and one […]
Duke-NUS scientists to start testing COVID-19 vaccine this year; other vaccine developments
As the search for a vaccine for the new coronavirus progresses, scientists from the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore are planning for testing to begin as soon as this year – Duke-NUS has teamed up with the Coalition for Epidemic […]
New, additional substance seen to alleviate side effects of strong antidepressants
The antidepressants used today block the return transport of serotonin and thereby also the removal of active serotonin, a chemical that plays a major role in regulating our levels of happiness. Such a blockage would require large doses of the […]
