Posted 14/07/2020. Non-adherence in non-inferiority trials typically dilutes observed treatment effects, leading to a higher probability of claiming non-inferiority. Mo Yin and colleagues describe different patterns of non-adherence and the influence of the confounders on treatment effects. Causal inference methods that account for these confounders can minimise bias and risk of false non-inferiority claims.

Posted 25/06/2020. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a growing global health crisis. In order to develop a quantitative understanding of how antibiotics affect drug-resistant bacteria within the human gut, Ben Cooper and colleagues developed a data-driven model of the within-host dynamics of blaCTX-M, one of the most important gene families for antibiotic resistance.

Posted 12/06/2020. Safety of drugs is important, particularly during pregnancy. Makoto Saito and colleagues have pooled the data of 4503 women who had malaria in pregnancy and found that the currently used artemisinin-based combination therapies are equally safe for fetus. This study also highlights that risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) is high after malaria in pregnancy even treated with highly efficacious drugs, suggesting that prevention is important for reducing SGA in malaria endemic areas.