Lifeboat Foundation

More than 2000 Australian suffering from advanced melanoma will soon receive financial relief with an expansion of treatments on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says.

From March 1 the PBS listed Opdivo (nivolumab) will be expanded, assisting 1500 patients who might otherwise pay more than $100,000 per course of treatment without the PBS subsidy.

“Opdivo is a breakthrough immunotherapy which works by blocking proteins and helping the body’s own immune system to find, attack and destroy cancer cells,” Mr Hunt said in a statement on Sunday.

Shift by FDA expected to help increase tests to 10,000 per day.

The Dutch shipbuilder Royal Huisman used an engineering process developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for space missions in the design of the superyacht Sea Eagle II — expected to become the largest aluminum sailing yacht in the world upon delivery to its owner this Spring.

Engineering design used by the European Space Agency was used to create the largest aluminum superyacht.

Scientists think if there is life on Mars it’s likely to be hidden in deep underground caves.

This theory is supported by NASA experts and the U.S. space agency will be sending a new rover to the red planet this summer.

According to Space.com, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory research scientist Vlada Stamenković explained the Martian underground life theory at a recent space event.

Hitting the Books: How getting your clock cleaned can turn your brain’s first line of immune defense into its own worst enemy.

This new laser microscope can reveal cells like never before 😱.

Regeneron will work with the U.S. government to develop antibody treatments for the new coronavirus from China, disclosing Tuesday an expansion of a partnership that previously yielded an experimental drug cocktail for the Ebola virus.

The Tarrytown, New York-based biotech is one of roughly a dozen drugmakers now working on treatments for the coronavirus that emerged late last year in Wuhan, China. Most are smaller companies unlikely to possess sufficient funds to run large-scale tests, although Johnson & Johnson and Gilead have announced initial efforts in recent weeks.

The biotech hopes to replicate its past success in quickly advancing a treatment for Ebola. But, as that experience showed, proving a new antiviral isn’t easy.

Continue reading “Regeneron partners with US government to develop coronavirus treatment” »

Since the new coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 7, companies and academic groups around the world have been working at breakneck pace to develop new therapies for the virus, now called SARS-CoV-2. This week, two US biotech firms, Moderna and Gilead Sciences, positioned themselves as frontrunners.

The world’s first clinical trial of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will soon begin in the US. On Feb. 25, Moderna announced that it has shipped its experimental vaccine to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which will conduct the trial. The entire process—from vaccine design to manufacturing to shipment—took only 7 weeks.

Gilead has a head start on an antiviral, while Moderna is pursuing a novel mRNA vaccine.

Continue reading “Gilead and Moderna lead on coronavirus treatments” »

The treatment could hold real promise as coronavirus infections and deaths outside of China continue to swell. “There is only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy and that’s remdesivir,” said WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward during a press conference in Beijing on Monday. The drug is already being enlisted in clinical trials in China.

Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir is being used in the first U.S. clinical trial to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.