Naturally occurring clay from British Columbia, Canada - long used by the region's Heiltsuk First Nation for its healing potential - exhibits potent antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant pathogens, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

A team of UAB (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) researchers and collaborators from the Catalan biotech company Ability Pharmaceuticals (UAB Research Park), have described a new mechanism of anti-tumour action, identified during the study and development of the new drug ABTL0812. The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, was coordinated by Dr José Miguel Lizcano from the UAB Institute of Neurosciences and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multi-national trade agreement now being considered by 12 countries. In an insightful commentary in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP), the ramifications of major components of the agreement are discussed, especially those potentially impacting the worldwide pharmaceutical industry.

More than 80 leading international pharmaceutical, generics, diagnostics and biotechnology companies, as well as key industry bodies, have come together to call on governments and industry to work in parallel in taking comprehensive action against drug-resistant infections - so-called 'superbugs' - with a joint declaration launched today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

You grab for the cough syrup for some relief from that nasty lingering cold, what do you measure the dose with? Many of us use teaspoons or table spoons to measure out doses for ourselves and our children but this results in dosage errors. This new study finds that errors in estimating doses can be mitigated by changing the serving measurements on the dosage facts panel from teaspoons to milliliters.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) proposes new rules that will require authors to share clinical trial data as a prerequisite for their manuscripts to be considered for publication. The goal is to improve the benefit to society from the efforts of patients who volunteer to participate in clinical trials.

Findings from a new study reveal that PARP inhibitors, an emerging class of drugs being studied in cancer clinical trials, may be enhanced by combining them with inhibitors targeting an oncogene known as c-MET which is overexpressed in many cancers.