Drug Trials

Each year, malaria kills more than 1 million people -- 90% of them in sub-Saharan Africa and 80% of them younger than 5 -- and makes 300 million people seriously ill. Major progress in controlling the disease has been made by the widespread adoption of bed nets to keep mosquitoes from attacking children at night and by the use of artemisinin-based therapy, which is the most effective treatment for infections. But vaccines have historically proved the best technique for controlling infectious diseases, and researchers have high hopes for a new one called RTS,S/AS2A, or Mosquirix.

Vaccines to help people recover from such addictions as nicotine, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines now appear scientifically and medically achievable after doctors reported Monday that a vaccine to treat cocaine dependence had produced a large enough antibody response to reduce cocaine use in 38% of addicted individuals. Those results come on the heels of last week's announcement that the federal government would fund a large clinical trial of a nicotine vaccine based on earlier promising studies.

When actor Patrick Swayze died earlier this month of pancreatic cancer, it put a famous face on a grim disease. At 57, Swayze was young enough for his death to register shock. Swayze had an advanced case of the disease, as the cancer had spread to his liver. It's little comfort to realize he beat the odds -- most people with this diagnosis don't live more than a year after diagnosis, and Swayze lived for 20 months. In February, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery for her pancreatic cancer.

Biotech giant Amgen Inc. saw its largest single-day stock-price jump in four years after announcing that its experimental bone-strengthening medicine worked better than a potential rival in a study comparing the two drugs in breast cancer patients. On Wednesday, the Thousand Oaks company's shares rose $7.27, a day-over-day increase of 13.9%, to close at $59.50 on the Nasdaq exchange.

A controversial prostate cancer vaccine that previously had been rejected by the Food and Drug Administration improves survival of patients with the advanced form of the disease more than existing treatments and should be brought to market, researchers said Tuesday.

Pfizer Inc. said it was ending development of two medicines that had been in final human testing to shift funding and staff to other experimental drugs with more potential. The world's biggest drug maker said it decided to halt more testing of compounds to treat fibromyalgia and generalized anxiety disorder after reviewing its existing and experimental primary-care drugs. Neither compound had been seen as a likely blockbuster because other drugs to treat those conditions already are on the market.

Amgen Inc. said its experimental osteoporosis drug denosumab reduced fractures in women with the bone-thinning disease in a study. The trial of 7,800 women with osteoporosis found that denosumab strengthened bones and reduced spinal and hip fractures, the Thousand Oaks-based company said.

Amgen Inc. said its experimental osteoporosis drug denosumab strengthened bones and reduced spinal fractures in men undergoing treatment for prostate cancer in a clinical trial. In the three-year study, 1,400 men taking denosumab had improved bone density and half as many spinal fractures compared with a placebo, the Thousand Oaks company said.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said Tuesday he has placed three officers on home assignment as the department moved swiftly to investigate allegations that officers lied under oath during a recently dismissed drug possession trial. Bratton said he ordered the reassignment after one of the officers notified a Los Angeles Police Department watch commander that a judge had thrown out the charges, ruling that a videotape of the arrest contradicted testimony by two of the officers.

A Los Angeles judge abruptly ended a trial and exonerated a man of possessing cocaine Monday after a courtroom confrontation in which a defense attorney produced a surprise video of his client's arrest that sharply contradicted the testimony of two police officers. Superior Court Judge Monica Bachner dismissed charges against Guillermo Alarcon Jr., a grocery store worker, after prosecutors reviewed the tape and acknowledged that it was inconsistent with the officers' sworn testimony.