Milo Biotechnology today announced its AAV1-FS344 has been granted Orphan Drug designation from the FDA's Office of Orphan Products Development for treatment of Becker and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. AAV1-FS344 is a gene therapy-delivered myostatin inhibitor that increases muscle strength.
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GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and XenoPort, Inc. announced today that the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Horizant (gabapentin enacarbil) Extended-Release Tablets for the management of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) in adults.
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Scientists have confirmed that mutations of a gene are responsible for some cases of a rare, inherited disease that causes progressive muscle degeneration and weakness: spinal muscular atrophy with lower extremity predominance, also known as SMA-LED.
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Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced results from several new data analyses from the pivotal Phase III studies evaluating the addition of its investigational oral protease inhibitor VICTRELIS to peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin in adult patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection.
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Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced today that several new data analyses from Phase III studies of VICTRELIS, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, will be presented at The International Liver CongressTM / 46th European Association for the Study of the Liver annual meeting.
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A recent study by researchers at the University of Utah determined that the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) caused a higher rate of neurological complications in children than the seasonal flu. The most common complications observed were seizures and encephalopathy.
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Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, the largest non-profit organization in the United States focused on finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne), will award a $600,000 grant to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio to conduct clinical testing of a promising gene therapy technique for muscle disease.
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On the evening of March 4, 2010, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution designating March as "National Autoimmune Diseases Awareness Month" and supporting efforts to increase awareness of autoimmune diseases and increase funding for autoimmune disease research. The Senate resolution (S.RES.372) was introduced by Michigan Senator Carl Levin on December 8, 2009.
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Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases are a major health issue. The National Institutes of Health reports that up to 23.5 million Americans are afflicted. The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association reports the number is closer to 50 million. Scientists and clinicians at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston can address the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions, as well as the latest advances in research.
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Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), Kowa Company, Limited, and Kowa's U.S. subsidiary, Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc., today announced that Lilly and Kowa Pharmaceuticals America have entered into a co-promotion agreement in the United States to commercialize LIVALO® (pitavastatin). Lilly and Kowa have also entered into a licensing agreement in Latin America. LIVALO is a statin approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2009 for the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia and mixed dyslipidemia.
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New evidence-based recommendations developed by the Surgical Infection Society to guide physicians in the diagnosis and management of complicated skin and soft tissue infections have been published in Surgical Infections, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com).
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Severe weakness of the quadriceps is a defining feature of several neuromuscular disorders. Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital have shown that a gene delivery strategy that produces follistatin - a naturally occurring protein that inhibits myostatin, a growth factor expressed specifically in skeletal muscle - directly to the quadriceps of non-human primates results in long-term gene expression with muscle enhancing effects, including larger muscles with greater strength.
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Patients suffering from two serious autoimmune disorders which cause muscular inflammation are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, says a group of Montreal researchers. Dr. Christian A. Pineau and his team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have linked muscular inflammation to increased cardiovascular risk for the first time.
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Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sunlight may be associated with the development of certain autoimmune diseases, particularly in women, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health.
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A potential vaccine for Alzheimer's disease also has been shown in mice to slow the weakening of muscles associated with inclusion body myositis, a disorder that affects the elderly.
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Researchers have cleared a safety hurdle in efforts to develop a gene therapy for a form of muscular dystrophy that disables patients by gradually weakening muscles near the hips and shoulders.
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Genomas, a biomedical company advancing DNA-guided medicine and personalized healthcare, has announced the award of a Fast-Track Phase I-II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant totaling $1.2 million.
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A new UC Irvine study finds that lithium chloride, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder, can slow the development of inclusion body myositis, a skeletal muscle disease that affects the elderly.
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Injecting a gene responsible for making a specific protein into a mouse that's used as a model for muscular dystrophy can lead to long-term improvements in the animal's muscle size and strength, a new study shows.
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Abbott has announced that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to market HUMIRA (adalimumab) as a treatment to reduce signs and symptoms of moderately to severely active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in patients four years of age and older.
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