New education strategies for better controlling hypertension and research suggesting a possible link between short-term and long-term exposure to air pollution and increased risk of constricted blood vessels are among the research highlights from studies supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the American Heart Association's 2009 Scientific Sessions in Orlando held Nov. 14-18. [More]

Fenwal, Inc., a global medical technology company focused on improving blood collection, separation, safety and availability, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the Verax Platelet PGD® test as a quality control test to detect bacterial contamination in whole blood-derived, pooled platelets prior to transfusion. Fenwal is the exclusive global distributor of the test, which was developed by Verax Biomedical of Worcester, Mass. [More]

China Biologic Products, Inc. ("China Biologic," or the "Company"), one of the leading plasma-based biopharmaceutical companies in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), operating through its indirect majority- owned subsidiaries, Shandong Taibang Biological Products Co. Ltd. ("Taibang") and Guiyang Dalin Biologic Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Dalin") and its equity investment in Xi'an Huitian Blood Products Co., Ltd. ("Huitian"), today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2009. [More]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared for marketing the Platelet PGD Test System, the first rapid test for the detection of bacterial contamination in pooled platelets derived from whole blood. [More]

A new reversible blood thinner for angioplasty patients wasn't superior over placebo for its primary combined endpoint of heart attack, all-cause mortality and need for revascularization, but it reduced mortality and in-stent blood clots, researchers reported in a late-breaking clinical trial presentation at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009. [More]

Amorfix Life Sciences, a company focused on misfolded protein diseases, today reported its second quarter operating results and provided an update on the Company's diagnostic and therapeutic programs. [More]

Medications frequently given to cancer patients to reduce their risk of anemia are associated with an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, according to new research led by Dawn Hershman, M.D, M.S., co-director of the breast cancer program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. The findings will be published online on Nov. 10, 2009 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (ahead of the Dec. 2, 2009 print edition). [More]

Amorfix Life Sciences, a company focused on treatments and diagnostics for misfolded protein diseases, today announced it has achieved 100% specificity (no reproducible false positive results) upon testing 19,000 blood donations for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ("vCJD") with the EP-vCJD(TM) Blood Screening Assay at l'Etablissement Français du Sang de Pyrénées Méditerrannée ("EFS-PM") in Montpellier, France. [More]

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b55293/cord_blood_stem_ce) has announced the addition of the "Cord Blood Stem Cells - A Global Market Overview" report to their offering. [More]

BloodCenter of Wisconsin (BCW) today announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $1.4 million Small Business Technology Transfer grant to fund continued research into the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to enhance safety and reduce hospital costs related to the collection, manufacture and transfusion of blood products. The NIH grant allows the first-ever research into the potential clinical and financial benefits of RFID technology for automatic identification, tracking, and status monitoring of blood and blood products across the entire transfusion medicine supply chain. [More]

Babesiosis is a potentially dangerous parasitic disease transmitted by ticks and is common in the Northeast and the upper Midwest. Babesia lives inside of red blood cells, meaning it can also be transmitted through a blood transfusion from an infected but otherwise asymptomatic blood donor. [More]

A new study debating the effectiveness of minimally invasive prostate surgery is not telling the whole story, warns Dr. David B. Samadi, Chief of the Division of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Department of Urology at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. [More]

Several cell-based therapy approaches could provide new treatments for patients with Alport syndrome, reports an upcoming paper in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "Our study opens up many considerations of how new therapies related to the use of stem cells can be devised for our kidney patients with chronic disease," comments Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA). [More]

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5e4f31/blood_banking_tech) has announced the addition of the "Blood Banking Technologies: Assessment of Current and Emerging Technologies, and Their Potential Market Applications" report to their offering. [More]

Memorial Blood Centers today outlined steps the organization is taking to stay prepared for the spread of the H1N1 virus and to ensure a safe experience for blood donors and an ample blood supply for our communities. [More]