News

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced Tuesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Pulmonary Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee (PADAC) voted 13-2 to recommend approval of Kalydeco (ivacaftor) in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) ages six and older who have the R117H mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulatory (CFTR) gene,…

Specialty drug discovery company Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. has officially welcomed 6 new members to its clinical advisory board, who will have a direct impact on the company’s efforts in developing therapies for cystic fibrosis. The company is internationally known for its focus on developing cutting edge treatments for…

A new study on chronic lung infections associated with cystic fibrosis (CF) entitled “Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes Restrict Growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the Lungs of Cystic Fibrosis Patients” recently published in the Infection and Immunity journal, is shedding new light on bacterial behavior in lung…

A new study entitled “Inter- and Intraspecies Metabolite Exchange Promotes Virulence of Antibiotic-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus” published in Cell Host & Microbe reports antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus interacts with other species to promote their growth and virulence inside its host. This new finding is particularly important to the…

Governor Tom Corbett Every year, millions of babies in the U.S. undergo newborn screening to detect conditions that may gravely affect their health or survival in the long run. This effort is part of healthcare’s emphasis on early detection, accurate diagnoses, and prompt intervention in order to prevent juvenile…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded $15.6 million in grants to support research into mucolytic agents discovered by Parion Sciences, a company dedicated to creating novel therapies for pulmonary diseases, such as Cystic Fibrosis among others. The five-year grants were given to The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and…

In the 1980s, life expectancy for persons with cystic fibrosis (CF) was just 12 years in the US, and around 20 in Canada. However, the median age of survival for Canadian CF patients continues on an upward trend, and is currently estimated to be 50.9 years of age…

A low-cost, disposable breath analysis device that a person with cystic fibrosis could use at home along with a smartphone to immediately detect a lung infection, much like the device police use to gauge a driver’s blood alcohol level, may soon be a reality. Such a device could provide timely…

A new study entitled “Counteracting suppression of CFTR and voltage-gated K+ channels by a bacterial pathogenic factor with the natural product tannic acid” published in Elife reports on the discovery of an inhibitor for Staphylococcus aureus, the leading agent of infections in Cystic Fibrosis…

This year at the 28th Annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC) in Atlanta, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced their ongoing efforts to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF) by focusing on mutations in the CFTR gene (short for cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance receptor) through a combination of drugs.