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(Cooney Waters Group, Inc.) Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that an investigational high-dose influenza vaccine demonstrated increased immune responses among adults 65 years of age and older compared with the standard influenza vaccine. The candidate high-dose intramuscular formulation of the influenza vaccine is being developed by Sanofi Pasteur.

(University of rochester medical Center) Giving people age 65 and older a dose four times larger than the standard flu vaccine boosts the amount of antibodies in their blood to levels considered protective against the flu, more so than the standard flu vaccine does. The findings from a study of nearly 4,000 people were presented Oct. 26 at a national meeting on infectious diseases.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Mari M. Kitahata, M.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, will present the following findings on Oct. 26, 2008, during the joint annual meeting of ICAAC/ IDSA in Washington, D.C.: Under current treatment guidelines, highly active antiretroviral therapy should be considered for HIV-infected patients when their CD4+ T-cell counts fall below 350 cells per cubic millimeter (mm3). However, new epidemiological research suggests that patients with HIV may have less risk of dying if they begin HAART sooner.

(Zeno Group) Arpida announced results from two pivotal phase III clinical trials that showed intravenous iclaprim, a novel antibiotic, had high clinical cure rates similar to those of the comparator drug, linezolid, in the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A new drug application for iclaprim in cSSSI will be discussed at the US FDA Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee meeting on Nov. 20, 2008.