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Attorney Keith Jensen announces $3.78 million settlement with Pfizer on TEN case

Attorney Keith Jensen of the Fort Worth, Texas-based law firm of Jensen, Belew & Gonzalez is announcing a $3.78 million settlement with pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer Inc. on behalf of the family of a nine-year-old New York girl who died in June 2004 as the result of a drug-induced disease known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome, which caused all of her skin to peel off.

11 Oct 2010

Cell Cure, Teva Pharmaceutical enter license option agreement for OpRegen product

BioTime, Inc., Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd., and Hadasit Bio-Holdings Ltd. jointly announced today that Cell Cure and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. have entered into an exclusive license option agreement to develop and commercialize Cell Cure's OpRegen product for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

11 Oct 2010

Scientists develop first screening method to identify river blindness disease

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have developed the first screening method that rapidly identifies individuals with active river blindness, a parasitic disease that afflicts an estimated 37 million people. The test could change the current strategy of mass treatment in areas where river blindness, also known as onchocerciasis, is suspected.

7 Oct 2010

Depressed pregnant women at increased risk of delivering preterm birth and low-birth weight infants

Clinical depression puts pregnant women at increased risk of delivering prematurely and of giving birth to below-normal weight infants, according to a report published Oct. 4 in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

5 Oct 2010

Enzo commences clinical trial of Optiquel for chronic non-infectious uveitis

Enzo Biochem, Inc., announced today that, following filing of a investigational new drug (IND) application with the FDA, its Enzo Therapeutics division is commencing a clinical trial of Optiquel™ , the Company's proprietary oral therapeutic for chronic non-infectious uveitis. The trial is designed as a randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled study with a long-term follow-up and is being conducted by the National Institute of Health's National Eye Institute (NEI).

4 Oct 2010

Cost-effective ways for early detection of 'lazy eye'

Amblyopia, known as "lazy eye," is a major cause of vision problems in children and a common cause of blindness in people aged 20 to 70 in developed countries. In amblyopia the person's stronger eye is favored and his/her weaker eye gradually loses visual power as a result. When the condition is detected and treated before age 7, more than 75 percent of children achieve 20/30 vision or better, the Amblyopia Treatment Study reports.

4 Oct 2010

Merck's boceprevir Phase III studies for HCV to be presented at 61st AASLD

Merck today announced that final results from two pivotal Phase III studies of boceprevir, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, will be presented in oral plenary sessions at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), which is taking place from Oct. 29 through Nov. 2 in Boston. Results for boceprevir in response-guided therapy strategies, which evaluated treatment durations shorter than current standard therapy, will be presented during the meeting.

4 Oct 2010

NIH to award $64M under Transformative Research Projects program

The National Institutes of Health will award up to $64 million over five years to encourage exploration of exceptionally innovative and original research ideas that have the potential for extraordinary impact.

4 Oct 2010

Look AHEAD intervention program improves risk factors in obese, type 2 diabetic patients

An intensive lifestyle intervention program designed to achieve and maintain weight loss improves diabetes control and cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes, according to four-year results of the Look AHEAD study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are published in the Sept. 27, 2010, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

4 Oct 2010

Study shows no difference between Bevacizumab and Ranibizumab efficacy in treating AMD

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the VA Boston Healthcare System have conducted a study that failed to show a difference in efficacy between Bevacizumab (Avastin) and Ranibizumab (Lucentis) for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

4 Oct 2010

APhA urges consumers to discuss proper medication usage with pharmacists

In honor of American Pharmacists Month, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) encourages consumers to hold an open dialogue with their pharmacists about a growing problem in the United States, the proper usage of and adherence to medications.

1 Oct 2010

Researchers receive NIH award to investigate regenerative potential of retinal cells

Zhang and co-principal investigators Sheng Ding, PhD, from The Scripps Research Institute, and Thomas Reh, PhD from the University of Washington, received the highest possible scores for their proposal to investigate the regenerative potential of retinal cells. Their long-term goal is to restore visual function lost through diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

30 Sep 2010

Tamir's compounds perform better than Ganciclovir for Cytomegalovirus disease: Study

Tamir Biotechnology, Inc. announced today that scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) reported test results confirming two of our lead compounds outperformed market leader Roche's drug Ganciclovir in cell culture and plaque reduction assay (the gold standard) for Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. Additionally, antiviral activity was also apparent against other human herpesviruses, namely, HSV-1 (cold sores), HSV-2 (genital herpes), and Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV) (chicken-pox and shingles).

29 Sep 2010

FDA approves OZURDEX implant for uveitis treatment

Allergan, Inc. today announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved OZURDEX (dexamethasone intravitreal implant) 0.7 mg for the treatment of non-infectious ocular inflammation, or uveitis, affecting the posterior segment of the eye.

27 Sep 2010

Raltegravir could be valid target against all Herpesviridae

Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) headed by the coordinator of the Structural and Computational Biology Programme, Miquel Coll, have published a new study that demonstrates that raltegravir, the drug approved in 2007 for the treatment of AIDS that is sold by Merck under the name Isentress, cancels the function of an essential protein for the replication of one kind of herpes virus.

23 Sep 2010

Six3 gene safeguards future retina

New research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators adds to evidence that the Six3 gene functions like a doorman in the developing brain and visual system, safeguarding the future retina by keeping the region where the eye is forming free of a signaling protein capable of disrupting the process.

21 Sep 2010

Lisofylline drug effective for Type 2 diabetes

Australian scientists, in association with US pharmaceutical company DiaKine Therapeutics, have shown that a drug candidate, Lisofylline, could be useful in treating Type 2 diabetes.

20 Sep 2010

AMDAI launches 'Don't Surrender to AMD' public awareness campaign

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), which affects more than 10 million older Americans, continues to be the leading cause of vision loss in the United States. The global cost of the disease according to a recent report by AMD Alliance International (AMDAI) is estimated at $343 billion, underscoring the need for swift actions to raise awareness of prevention and treatment options.

18 Sep 2010

FDA grants AGTC $1M for Phase II human clinical trial in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency

Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, a privately-held, clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel systems to deliver human therapeutics, announces that it has received a grant of $1 million from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA Orphan Drugs Program) to fund a Phase II Human Clinical Trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of a treatment for Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AAT), a genetic disease known to result in serious lung and/or liver disease.

17 Sep 2010

Artificial pancreas for diabetics

In another few years diabetics may be treated using an artificial pancreas developed by Professor Joan Taylor professor of Pharmaceutics at De Montfort University (DMU), Leicester. This could mean freedom from daily insulin injections she said.

16 Sep 2010

Blindness News and Research

Attorney Keith Jensen announces $3.78 million settlement with Pfizer on TEN case

Cell Cure, Teva Pharmaceutical enter license option agreement for OpRegen product

Scientists develop first screening method to identify river blindness disease

Depressed pregnant women at increased risk of delivering preterm birth and low-birth weight infants

Enzo commences clinical trial of Optiquel for chronic non-infectious uveitis

Cost-effective ways for early detection of 'lazy eye'

Merck's boceprevir Phase III studies for HCV to be presented at 61st AASLD

NIH to award $64M under Transformative Research Projects program

Look AHEAD intervention program improves risk factors in obese, type 2 diabetic patients

Study shows no difference between Bevacizumab and Ranibizumab efficacy in treating AMD

APhA urges consumers to discuss proper medication usage with pharmacists

Researchers receive NIH award to investigate regenerative potential of retinal cells

Tamir's compounds perform better than Ganciclovir for Cytomegalovirus disease: Study

FDA approves OZURDEX implant for uveitis treatment

Raltegravir could be valid target against all Herpesviridae

Six3 gene safeguards future retina

Lisofylline drug effective for Type 2 diabetes

AMDAI launches 'Don't Surrender to AMD' public awareness campaign

FDA grants AGTC $1M for Phase II human clinical trial in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency

Artificial pancreas for diabetics

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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