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Fibrosis is the growth of fibrous tissue.
AIFA approves pricing and reimbursement conditions for InterMune's Esbriet

AIFA approves pricing and reimbursement conditions for InterMune's Esbriet

InterMune, Inc. today announced that the Board of the Italian Drug Agency has approved the pricing and reimbursement conditions for Esbriet (pirfenidone), and that the agreement has been published in the Official Gazette, the official journal of the government of Italy. [More]
Viewpoints: 'Tyranny' over insurers; Obama's promises; Rep. Franks's abortion claim

Viewpoints: 'Tyranny' over insurers; Obama's promises; Rep. Franks's abortion claim

Many of us wish that Obamacare were a simpler system, one that directly provided health insurance. Political reality, unfortunately, ensured that many people will receive coverage from private insurers, selling policies -; often with subsidies -; on the "exchanges". And naturally enough, the Obama administration is teaming up with the insurers and other parts of the health industry to help inform Americans of the benefits to which they will be legally entitled, starting Jan. 1 (Paul Krugman, 6/12). [More]
PRISM Pharma announces closing of $15 million Series C financing

PRISM Pharma announces closing of $15 million Series C financing

PRISM Pharma Co., Ltd., a drug discovery company focused on developing small molecule technologies that modulate protein-protein interactions, today announced the close of an approximately $15 million (approximately ¥1.4 billion) Series C financing. [More]
Johns Hopkins researchers develop experimental vaccine for TB meningitis

Johns Hopkins researchers develop experimental vaccine for TB meningitis

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers working with animals has developed a vaccine that prevents the virulent TB bacterium from invading the brain and causing the highly lethal condition TB meningitis, a disease that disproportionately occurs in TB-infected children and in adults with compromised immune system. [More]

Study shows iron-uptake receptor plays a role in HCV infection

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 170 million people worldwide. Approximately 80 percent of infections lead to chronic illness including fibrosis, cirrhosis, cancer and also hepatic iron overload. [More]
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota honored as 2013-2014 Best Children's Hospital

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota honored as 2013-2014 Best Children's Hospital

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota has been honored by U.S. News & World Report as a 2013-2014 Best Children's Hospital. Children's has been ranked on the list every year since the program's inception in 2007. [More]

Debate over a dying child and a lack of transplant organs

Several columnists explore the difficult questions raised by the case of Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old with cystic fibrosis who needs a lung transplant to survive. [More]
MRI scans of children who have undergone chemotherapy can detect early changes in their hearts

MRI scans of children who have undergone chemotherapy can detect early changes in their hearts

MRI scans of children who have had chemotherapy can detect early changes in their hearts finds research in biomed Central's open access journal Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance. [More]

Judge's second ruling on child transplants prompts ethical, political questions

A federal judge issued a second ruling in as many days allowing another dying child onto an adult transplant list -- a move that could have ramifications for thousands of adults waiting for donated organs. [More]

Judge orders Sebelius to put girl who needs lung on transplant list

A federal judge intervened in the case of a 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis who needs a lung transplant, ordering HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to provide an exception and place the girl on the adult lung transplant list. [More]

Lawmakers 'beg' Sebelius for child's lung transplant

A 10-year-old girl in urgent need of a transplant was brought up by some GOP lawmakers during Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' appearance at a House hearing. [More]

RXi Pharmaceuticals reports positive results from 2 placebo-controlled double blind studies of RXI-109

RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies addressing major unmet medical needs using RNA-targeted technologies, today announced the unblinded results of the first of their 2 placebo-controlled double blind studies in volunteers with their anti-scarring agent RXI-109, a proprietary sd-rxRNA compound that has been shown in vitro and in animals to reduce mRNA for connective tissue growth factor. [More]
Researchers demonstrate how modified citrus pectin works against cancer

Researchers demonstrate how modified citrus pectin works against cancer

A new review by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine highlights a large body of published research demonstrating how modified citrus pectin, works against cancer. [More]
Arcturus Therapeutics closes $1.3 M in seed funding round

Arcturus Therapeutics closes $1.3 M in seed funding round

Arcturus Therapeutics, Inc., an industry leader in RNAi technologies for the treatment of disease, today announced it has raised $1.3 million in a seed funding round led by multiple high net-worth private investors from the United States and Canada. [More]
Activ8rlives 2.0 goes live with new self monitoring capabilities for health and wellness

Activ8rlives 2.0 goes live with new self monitoring capabilities for health and wellness

Activ8rlives’ website version 2.0 has now gone live after several months of preparation and testing. Activ8rlives focuses its online self monitoring solutions for health and wellness, which is utilized by families, groups and companies. [More]
CREON Delayed-Release Capsules now available in US for patients with EPI

CREON Delayed-Release Capsules now available in US for patients with EPI

AbbVie today announced that a new, higher-dose capsule of CREON (pancrelipase) Delayed-Release Capsules is commercially available in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved CREON in a 36,000 lipase-unit dose to treat patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency due to cystic fibrosis, swelling of the pancreas that lasts a long time (chronic pancreatitis), removal of some or all of the pancreas (pancreatectomy), or other conditions. [More]
Researchers develop new gene therapy to thwart potential influenza pandemic

Researchers develop new gene therapy to thwart potential influenza pandemic

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have developed a new gene therapy to thwart a potential influenza pandemic. Specifically, investigators in the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, directed by James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, demonstrated that a single dose of an adeno-associated virus expressing a broadly neutralizing flu antibody into the nasal passages of mice and ferrets gives them complete protection and substantial reductions in flu replication when exposed to lethal strains of H5N1 and H1N1 flu virus. [More]
Scientists discover new function of an enzyme that disposes of superfluous proteins

Scientists discover new function of an enzyme that disposes of superfluous proteins

Cells have a sophisticated system to control and dispose of defective, superfluous proteins and thus to prevent damage to the body. Dr. Katrin Bagola and Professor Thomas Sommer of the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch as well as Professor Michael Glickman and Professor Aaron Ciechanover of Technion, the Technical University of Israel in Haifa, have now discovered a new function of an enzyme that is involved in this vital process. [More]

Innovative nebulizer to treat cystic fibrosis developed by Cambridge Consultants

Observing surfers with cystic fibrosis (CF) led scientists to discover that the inhaled mist of seawater has a therapeutic effect on the lung problems associated with the disease. Now the findings have been used by pharmaceutical company Parion Sciences and product development firm Cambridge Consultants in a revolutionary new aerosol delivery system. It enables CF sufferers to get the benefits of saltwater treatment in their own homes overnight while they sleep. [More]

MUC5B gene variation improves survival in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Variation in the gene MUC5B among patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was associated with improved survival, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American Thoracic Society international conference. [More]