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Pilot program to communicate patient reported outcomes from cancer clinical trials

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched Project Patient Voice. Through a new website, Project Patient Voice creates a consistent source of publicly available information describing patient-reported symptoms from cancer trials for marketed treatments. “The Project Patient Voice pilot is a significant step in advancing a patient-centered approach to oncology drug development,” said FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D. “Where patient-reported symptom information is collected rigorously, this information should be readily available to patients.”

Alzheimer's: FDA approves first drug to image tau pathology

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Tauvid (flortaucipir F18) for intravenous injection, the first drug used to help image a distinctive characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain called tau pathology. Tauvid is a radioactive diagnostic agent for adult patients with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer’s disease. Tauvid is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the brain to estimate the density and distribution of aggregated tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), a primary marker of Alzheimer’s disease. Detailed information can be found on the FDA website.

COVID-19: Cross protection by encephalitis vaccine a factor for lesser mortality

A significant discrepancy in mortality among even geographically close regions could be explained by a cross protection induced by Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine (JEV) and/or Tick-Borne Encephalitis Vaccine (TEV) according to Dr Shojiro Katoh, President, Edogawa Hospital.  He along with his international team of researchers of Edogawa Evolutionary Lab of Science (EELS), have published their opinion in Archives of Academic Emergency Medicine, a peer reviewed journal (http://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/aaem/index.php/AAEM/article/view/683).