NEWS
By Stephanie Desmon | May 26, 2009
When an unvaccinated child in Dr. Daniel Levy's practice came down with whooping cough this year, the Owings Mills pediatrician made a decision: He would no longer see patients whose parents refused to have them immunized against that disease or others, such as measles and meningitis. The risks posed to his other patients were too great, Levy reasoned. And he felt he couldn't give adequate care to children whose parents rejected some of his most basic advice: That routine childhood vaccines are safe and are the key to preventing diseases that used to kill many before they could reach adulthood.
NEWS
By Liz Atwood | February 23, 2009
Whooping cough sounds like one of those old-fashioned diseases that only the heroines of Victorian novels get. But whooping cough, or pertussis, is a serious and sometimes fatal illness that has been on the rise in the United States in recent years, says Virginia Keane, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and president of the Maryland chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics. What is whooping cough? A bacterial infection caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis.
NEWS
By Frank D. Roylance | May 21, 2007
It sounds like some medieval baby-killer that must have disappeared when husbands first began boiling water as their wives went into labor. But 25 percent of pregnant women in the United States carry a common, potentially deadly bacterium called group B streptococcus (or GBS) that can infect their babies during childbirth or soon after. Although doctors frequently administer antibiotics during labor to prevent them, GBS infections kill or injure several thousand babies each year - within hours or weeks of their birth.
NEWS
By Erika Niedowski and Jonathan Bor | March 18, 2005
It started out much like any winter cold. But, soon enough, 16-year-old Zachary Graham couldn't stop coughing. And coughing. When doctors finally diagnosed Zach a few weeks later, they told him that his hacking fits - which sometimes made it hard to breathe and sleep - were caused by a disease the teenager thought he couldn't get: whooping cough. "When I was diagnosed, my parents and I were surprised that I had it because I had been vaccinated against the disease," said Graham, a high school junior from Sunapee, N.H., whose illness kept him off the ski slopes and away from his friends.
NEWS
By Jonathan Bor | March 23, 2002
Vaccine shortages are forcing pediatricians to delay giving shots against diseases from tetanus to whooping cough, raising concerns that the nation could lose ground in the fight against childhood illnesses. The trouble started last summer when doctors had difficulty replenishing supplies of tetanus vaccine. Production problems have since triggered shortages of immunizations against chickenpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps, German measles and pneumococcal disease. For now, pediatricians say the shortages have bedeviled staffers who have had to keep track of patients who did not get shots during scheduled visits, and parents who have had to bring their youngsters back to make up missed shots.
NEWS
By Mark Guidera | February 2, 1999
North American Vaccine Inc. said yesterday that it had won a key regulatory approval in Europe for a vaccine for children, and expects the vaccine's sales to help fuel revenue growth this year.The Columbia-based vaccine developer said German regulatory authorities gave marketing approval to the company's combined injectable vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis -- or whooping cough -- and polio.The DTaP-IPV vaccine was approved for use in infants and children up to six years of age, and will be marketed and distributed in Germany under an agreement with Chiron Behring, one of the largest vaccine distributors in Germany.
NEWS
By Mark Guidera | January 23, 1999
Columbia-based North American Vaccine Inc. reported yesterday that its fourth-quarter net loss almost doubled to $23.4 million, or 73 cents per share, on revenue of $3.3 million.In comparison, the company had a net loss of $13.1 million, or 41 cents per share, on revenue of $612,000 for the same period in 1997.The company said that its fourth-quarter loss included a $12 million interest charge. Without the charge, the loss would have been $11.5 million, or 36 cents per share, North American said.
NEWS
By Mark Guidera | October 22, 1998
In an effort to bring new life to its operations, North American Vaccine Inc. replaced its president of the past eight years with an executive from one of its competitors yesterday.Randal Chase, president of Canadian operations for vaccine maker Pasteur Merieux Connaught, will assume the top job at the Beltsville company by the end of the year, replacing Sharon Mates, who has departed."The company felt it was time for a management change because its needs have changed. North American Vaccine is shifting from an emerging biotechnology company to an operating company.
NEWS
October 17, 1998
Drug giant Abbott Laboratories said yesterday that it has begun marketing Certiva, a child vaccine developed and manufactured by North American Vaccine Inc. of Beltsville, to pediatricians and other health care providers.Certiva is the first North American Vaccine product to hit the U.S. market.Abbott has rights to market the vaccine, which provides protection against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or whooping cough, to the private physician and managed-care markets in the United States under an agreement with North American Vaccine.
NEWS
By Mark Guidera | July 31, 1998
North American Vaccine Inc. yesterday won a long-awaited Food and Drug Administration approval to market its new whooping cough vaccine for children in the United States.The approval, which took the Beltsville-based company almost two years to land, marks the first U.S. product approval for the 12-year-old biotechnology company."This is really big for us," said Stephen M. Keith, vice president for sales and marketing for North American. "Clearly, the U.S. is a big market, and we're confident the vaccine will do well gaining market share."