Vaccine Guru

Vaccines against Autoimmune Diseases Recently, several new avenues have been explored in development of therapeutics against autoimmune diseases and in particular, Multiple Sclerosis. MS is a debilitating disease that affects individuals, primarily women, in their peak and most productive years. There is no known cure for MS, which seems to encompass a spectrum of neurodegenerative processes that affect the brain and spinal cord. Several disease-modifying therapies are being used that target some aspect of the inflammatory process of MS and could reduce the severity of relapses. Some examples are Copaxone, Betaseron, Lemtrafa, Tysabri, Tecfidera, Rebif, Gilenya, Extavia, Avonex and Aubagio. The cost of these therapies range from $20,000-$40,000 per year. In view of increasing costs associated with drugs that varying effects on patients, new therapies against MS are warranted. An interesting approach that seems to use cellular therapy is now gaining ground and consists of us

CNN: Another study finds no link between MMR vaccine and autism A large group of kids who were at a higher risk of being diagnosed with autism were followed up for several years after getting their MMR shots. As expected, there was NO increased risk of developing autism. The study is led by Dr Anjali Jain of the Lewin Group. What makes this study interesting is not the data that unequivocally supports vaccination in kids but the fact that the study is conducted by physicians who are employees of the Lewin Group. Now Lewin Group, if one starts digging up their past, has a little history of its own. In an article that appeared in the Washington Post in 2009, they have to their credit a shady past involving data skewing. Research Firm Cited by GOP Is Owned by Health Insurer (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/22/AR2009072202216.html) More specifically, the Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New

The resurgence of the measles epidemic, largely blamed on parents who have not vaccinated their kids, has brought to light, the fear that vaccines can cause harm. There need not be a debate on whether one should be vaccinated or not. It is a fact that vaccines have saved lives in several countries over the years. The scientific community along with academics and the pharmaceutical industry should partner up with people at the community level and educate them on the benefits of being vaccinated. The recent failure of the flu vaccine to confer protection and the adverse side effects of Gardasil vaccine against HPV has only perpetuated the idea that vaccines do not benefit people but only line the pockets of the rich.   Similar to the campaign started against the tobacco industry using images of tobacco users suffering from various cancers, a campaign for use of vaccines should be initiated. Images of patients suffering from various vaccine-preventable diseases shoul

A high profile paper by Picker and colleagues that was publicized widely now has been panned for its lack of proper statistical analysis, cherry picking of data etc etc. The anonymous writer and analyst commented on PubPeer that the Paper has several holes: The link is as follows: https://pubpeer.com/publications/C8D982830E18E0D289F0CF103876E3#fb21451 I am copying and pasting the entire comment here and wish the readers to follow up on these comments and post their views: The comment is as follows: HIV continues to bear a heavy toll on society with a disproportionate number of infections and deaths occurring in developing countries. Development of a safe and effective vaccine is clearly needed and several vaccine approaches are in clinical and preclinical development. Those of us in the HIV field hope to see an effective vaccine be developed that will prevent HIV infection and one of the most promising candidates to date is a T cell vaccine that utilizes recombinant rh