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Global antifungal market to grow at rate of 1.9% annually - to reach $8.4 billion by 2016
In 2009 the global antifungals market was estimated at $7.4 billion, with a year- on-year growth rate of 2.3% between 2001 and 2009. The antifungal market is dominated by voriconazole, primarily for the prevention and treatment of aspergillosis, at > $820 million worldwide. Whilst caspofungin (intravenous only) sells over $600M per year, followed by intravenous AmBisome at >$400million worldwide. Posaconazole and micafungin have sales of over $500 million combined. None of these have topped the billion dollar markets of fluconazole or terbinafine, despite some limitations of these agents.
A new report predicts a moderate growth rate leading up to 2016 of $8.4 billion by 2016. GBI Research analysed the top three fungal diseases requiring antifungal therapy - aspergillosis, skin and nail fungal infections and candidiasis in the major markets (USA, Japan and Europe). The leading brands are still under patent (or complex to manufacture) but patent expiry will see a change in both cost and prescribing patterns as generic equivalents are launched. Link
This report highlights the growing market for antifungal medicines and therefore costs - and is supported by estimated global figures for aspergillosis. Predictions for the global burden of allergic fungal disease - for ABPA alone - 4 million of 193 million asthmatics will go on to develop ABPA.
For allergic fungal sinusitis it is predicted that 12 million people are affected at any one time, although few of these will require antifungal therapy. For chronic pulmonary aspergillosis - the global burden exceeds 3 million. Link
These remarkable figures underpin a general trend of market growth for antifungal drugs. Current drugs have several limitations which underscore the need for ongoing development of new antifungal medicine.
The high cost of most antifungal medicines, precludes its use in most developing countries and an important global objective must be to facilitate cheaper antifungals for those who cannot afford them.
Latest News and Articles
 Please take a little time to consider the effort and sacrifice being put into a huge fundraising effort by RAF man Lewis Fraser in memory of Steph Smith. Steph tragically died from aspergillosis in 2009 after a very short illness just as she was achieving her life's aim of becoming a teacher.
Lewis and his friend Aaron have elected to take on one of the greatest challenges possible - to run 100 mile over 5 days in the Himalayas and it starts on the 18th October 2011. Please give generously to this incredible effort to help them on their way. All donations will go to the Fungal Research Trust to help pay for research into the rapid diagnosis of aspergillus diseases.
Attention Clinicians!
AspICU2 is a web-based multicentre observational survey to assess the burden of aspergillosis and other fungi in critically ill patients. AspICU2 is the follow up of the original study AspICU project where emphasis was given to Aspergillus-positive cultures in critically ill patients. AspICU2 has a broadened scope to include other fungal disease with the accent on epidemiology, especially incidence and risk factor identification.
Advances against Aspergillosis
REMINDER: abstracts deadline 27th September
Early registration deadline is 30th September 2011
Register for An Interactive Masterclass at 5th AAA:
Management of chronic and allergic pulmonary aspergillosis. To be held prior to the 5th Advances against Aspergillosis conference on Wednesday 25th January 2012.
Also keep an eye on the #AAA5 AspergillusWeb twitter tag for updates
Selected articles: (85 new articles added, 13 of which are reviews and 9 historical)
The performance of this PCR-based quantitative assay is similar on serum and blood samples. The authors recommend serum samples as the most convenient hematological sample for Aspergillus DNA quantification when serial determinations are done.
Only 2 patients out of 458 with blood cancer (and thus were heavily vulnerable to infection) developed nosocomial Invasive Aspergillosis. No correlations were found between Aspergillus species isolated from the hospital rooms and those causing Invasive Aspergillosis.
CONCLUSION: The risk of hematologic malignancy patients acquiring nosocomial aspergillosis from water or HEPA-filtered air is very low.
All forms of Invasive Aspergillosis begin with the inhalation of the spore and its germination. Early treatment of the infection is critical to clinical outcome. This study looks at the proteins expressed in the first 16 hours after germination and uses a system (iTRAQ) that can follow the level of expression of thousands of individual proteins.
Reviews
The role of Dectin-1 in the host defence against fungal infections Dectin-1 is becoming increasingly prominant in our studies of the molecular biology of the host response to infection by fungi. This review updates our more recent progress and reminds us much is left to learn about this protein and it role in our immune response.
Has the era of individualised medicine arrived for antifungals? A review
of antifungal pharmacogenomics It is becoming increasingly possible to take account of differences between the way individual patients bodies react to medication when designing a treatment regimen for each patients. This is often desirable when for example different patients will have different levels of a drug in their blood despite the dose being the same in each case. Drug interactions are also prone to variability between individual patients. This review examines the current state of the art.
Immune responses against Aspergillus fumigatus: what have we learned? "Host recognition of fungal cell wall components is critical to allow our immune systems to eliminate infecting spores. We have learned more of several new components of our immune systems that contribute to optimal defense against A. fumigatus. Genetic and pharmacologic manipulation of A. fumigatus reveals that hypoxia adaptation, cell wall assembly, and secondary metabolite production (e.g. gliotoxin production during corticosteroid treatment) in mammalian tissues contribute to fungal pathogenesis and the outcome of infection."
Patients Website
(link)
Himalayan 100 mile stage race
 Only 30 days to go:Lewis Fraser & Aaron McKevitt are going to run one of the most demanding events in the world in aid of the Fungal Research Trust. The Himalayan Challenge (http://www.everestendurance.co.uk/) involves running 100 miles in 5 days at altitude and finishing 5000 feet higher than the start!
This astonishing feat of endurance is in memory of Steph Smith (aged 21) who died tragically from an acute aspergillosis infection over 2 years ago.
Lewis was Steph's partner and his story has recently featured in our blog. Read about his arduous preparation runs here.
Please donate in memory of Steph and in appreciation of this huge effort by Lewis & Aaron.
To date £6,851 has been donated already - many thanks to everyone who is contributing.
Aspergillosis Patients Meeting
Notes & slides from the latest Aspergillosis Patients meeting at the National Aspergillosis Centre (NAC) are available to watch here. Remote users can now watch and chat live during the meetings here
The talk was given by Derek Stewart OBE who is very active in several areas of patients involvement in medical research and the management of their own illness. Derek has just joined the board of trustees at the Fungal Research Trust and is hoping to inspire much closer interaction between the work of the FRT and patients. Video Slides with audio
The second half of the meeting was taken up with a summary of progress of our various points of discussion from the last meeting and a detailed further explanation of the importance of genetic mutations, what they are, why they make a difference, why we look for them by Graham Atherton Video Slides with audio
Drug interactions? If you are taking antifungal medication and want to see if your medicine might interact with other medicines you are using, why not visit the new drug interactions section on the patients' site.
Aspergillus Association of America
This US charity has has many similar aims to ourselves in the fight against aspergillosis and we are both hoping for closer collaboration in the future, but for now they are holding two fundraising 'events' that are well worth supporting:
- A fundraising cookbook consisting of many recipes donated by friends, costing $15.
To offer support or buy a cookbook you should go to https://aspergillusassociation.org/Fundraising.html where you can offer payment via PayPal and if you are a US taxpayer it will be tax-deductible.
Greetings Cards
 Designer cards in aid of the Fungal Research Trust. £1.75 each and 75% of that goes to the FRT. Christmas is coming and Jill makes fantastic Christmas cards! Order here.
New Species
Several new species have recently been identified in the recent 'Taxonomic studies on the genus Aspergillus' (Studies in Mycology vol 69(1)) and added to our species database including Aspergillus eucalypticola, A. neoniger, A. fijiensis and A. indologenus. New species from the Aspergillus section Terreus; Aspergillus alabamensis, A. terreus var. floccosus, A. terreus var. africanus, A. terreus var. aureus, A. hortai and A. terreus NRRL 4017. New papers are located in our taxonomy section.
New Genomes
Some RNA-seq transcriptome data is now available on CADRE for Aspergillus nidulans
Veterinary
Have a read of this case history blog featuring an African Grey parrot and the process a vet went through to finally diagnose nasal aspergillosis.
NB Vets in the UK in need of assistance with acquiring antifungals please contact us here
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Learn to manage long term illness better by taking part in a 6 week course. Originally designed at Stanford University, USA 20 years ago this programme has proven benefit for the patient, the carer and family. In the UK this is provided free of charge by the NHS.
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Jobs
six jobs are currently being advertised:
NIH Earl Stadtman Investigators
We have multiple tenure-track positions to offer. NIH, USA. Closing date 2011-10-01
Associate Research Fellow - Mycology Functional Genomics - A Functional Genomics Toolkit for the Wheat Pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola Ensuring global food security. Exeter, UK. Closing date 2011-10-20
Research Fellow - Mycology This project is focussing on the cellular biology of the most serious fungal wheat pathogen, Mycosphaerella graminicola. Exeter, UK. Closing date 2011-10-20
Functional Genomics Research Technician - Mycology This project is focussing on the cellular biology of the most serious fungal wheat pathogen, Mycosphaerella graminicola. Exeter, UK. Closing date 2011-10-20
Postdoctoral position in Antifungal immunity
An NIH-funded Immunology postdoctoral position is available to investigate vaccine associated immunity to fungi and novel mammalian signaling pathways involved in protective immunity. Madison, WI USA. Closing date 2011-10-21
Clinical Tenure-Track Position in Mycology
The Laboratory of Clinical Infectious
Diseases (LCID) is seeking an
outstanding tenure-track
investigator to work in the
area of clinical mycology. Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Closing date 2011-11-28
Advertise your vacancy free of charge on the Aspergillus Website here. *Optional donation to the Fungal Research Trust to cover costs incurred in providing this newsletter.
Conferences - coming up
Call for abstracts: 5th Advances Against Aspergillosis 26-28 January 2012 Istanbul, Turkey -
Abstracts deadline September 27 2011.
5th Trends in Medical Mycology. October 2 - 5th 2011, Valencia, Spain
The Second International Fungal Cell Wall Meeting October 7 - 10 2011, Giens, France
7th European Meeting on Molecular Diagnostics October 12 - 14 2011, The Hague, The Netherlands
49th Annual Meeting of IDSA October 20 - 23 2011, Boston, MA, USA
Many more here...
Courses and Workshops
We keep a listing of courses and workshops including 'one off' events and courses that repeat regularly. Course subjects are wide ranging and include medical mycology, lab ID, young scientists symposia and much more. Those coming up next are:
- Challenges and Solutions in the Development of New Diagnostic Tests to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance Sept 28-29 2011, Brussels , Belgium Link
- Mycology Masterclass V October 27-30 2011, Hamilton Island, QLD, Australia Link
- Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Infections - The Last Course November 16-18 2011, Kahler Grand Hotel Rochester, Minnesota, USA Link
If you know of a course that should be added to this list please add it by contacting us here
Blog
NewsBites
- New species in Aspergillus section Terrei
- Ochratoxin detected in 20% of Chronic Rhinosinusitis patients
- Molecular mechanism of Aspergillus fumigatus adherence to host constituents
Blogs
- Assessment of exposure to harmful mycotoxins through breast milk in Egyptian babies
- Pandemic influenza A and development of aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients
- Hurricane Irene causes Explosion in Mould Counts
- Advance in Prevention of Medical Implant Infections
Latest Books
Latest Theses
 Oxidative protein folding in Aspergillus niger by Harvey, Anna Ross 2010
View latest UK theses online.
The effect of omalizumab on free IgE and spirometric measurements in allergic asthmatics with highly elevated IgE levels by Bonilla, Sheila M.. University of Southern California, 2011.
NB Links to theses require library membership.
Laboratory Protocols
We are always looking for more for our collection - please send your suggestions here
Technical Tips
Our discussion group (email and/or website) designed to promote discussion on technical issues for laboratory workers.
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