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Mouse study indicates rapamycin drug prevents Alzheimer's disease, extends lifespan

If research results continue to be repeated and are turned into clinical trials, a drug already approved for some uses could be marshaled - sooner than we expect - to prevent Alzheimer's disease in humans and improve health to the end of life.

2 Apr 2010

Gene therapy improve survival rates among heart attack patients

Gene therapy could be an effective way to improve survival rates among heart attack patients, new research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) suggests. Academics at the University of Bristol found that boosting levels of a natural growth factor in the heart could help the muscle to recover after a heart attack. The death rate from a heart attack was halved in mice that received the treatment.

1 Apr 2010

An inability to switch off - workers stressed by technology

The much-touted "work/life balance" has been found to be riddled with paradox with new research showing work-related email invading workers' homes and leisure spaces, causing stress, anxiety, an inability to switch off, as well as potential damage to family relationships.

1 Apr 2010

Innovative drug design wins medical research prize

The development of a new way to treat iron overload disease has won the 2010 Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Prize for Medical Research.

1 Apr 2010

Athletes and ethicists look at fairness in sport

Just in time for baseball’s opening day, a series of articles in the Hastings Center Report asks what constitutes fairness in elite sports and what it takes to stop cheating. New issues, including the prospect of gene doping and questions about which athletes are really “female,” are explored.

1 Apr 2010

New development in treatment of African Sleeping Sickness

African sleeping sickness or Human African Typanosomiasis is a potentially fatal disease affecting 50 to 70 thousand Africans each year. Carried by the bite tsetse fly this fatal disease is actually caused by a tiny parasite that attacks the nervous system, brain, spinal column resulting in mental confusion and finally death.

1 Apr 2010

Genes improperly granted patents

Some time mid last year six breast cancer patients sued reputed Myriad Genetics, a company that holds patent of two vital genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 that play a role in increasing the risk of breast and ovarian cancers. The fees that the company charges for these genetic tests is a whopping $3,000 which these women claim they cannot afford and the most important of all these women cannot get a second opinion regarding the tests since no one else does them.

1 Apr 2010

Seniors worry about Medicare reforms, especially changes to Medicare Advantage

The Associated Press: "While Democrats hail the sweeping legislation as the greatest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, they also fear that seniors won't see it that way for this fall's elections. Indeed, Republicans have portrayed the overhaul as a raid on Medicare — a bedrock of retirement security — to provide money to pay for covering younger, uninsured workers and their families.

1 Apr 2010

Law enforcement officials seek, find Medicare fraud

The Palm Beach Post: To pay for the health reform bill, Medicare fraud is "ripe for plucking, top South Florida prosecutors say."

1 Apr 2010

Health law includes $250 million for abstinence education

The new health care law contains "a renewal of $50 million per year for five years for abstinence-focused education," CNN reports. "Programs that receive this funding must 'teach that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems,' according to the Department of Health and Human Services. To qualify, they must also teach that sex before marriage is "likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects'..."

1 Apr 2010

Democratic, Republican Attorneys General continue health reform lawsuit battle

Politico: Some of the Democratic attorneys general who have refused to join Republican counterparts in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health law, now "have become reluctant combatants, dragged into the fray by GOP governors and legislators who insist that their reluctance to join the case is a clear attempt to protect their national party's interests."

1 Apr 2010

Allergan, Serenity Pharmaceuticals announce global agreement for nocturia drug development

Allergan, Inc. and Serenity Pharmaceuticals, LLC today announced a global agreement for the development and commercialization of Ser-120, a Phase III investigational drug currently in clinical development for the treatment of nocturia, a common yet often under-diagnosed urological disorder in adults characterized by frequent urination at night time.

1 Apr 2010

Ricerca Biosciences, Life Science Partner announce business development agreement

Ricerca Biosciences, a preclinical contract research drug development company, is pleased to announce a business development agreement with Life Science Partner (LSP) Co., Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan. Ricerca offers a unique spectrum of services for the areas of agrochemical registration, environmental analysis and pre-investigational new drug (IND) biopharmaceutical registration.

1 Apr 2010

Lotus Pharmaceuticals reports EBIT increase of 29% in 2009

Lotus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a growing developer, manufacturer and seller of medicine and drugs in the People's Republic of China (the "PRC") reported that its 2009 net earnings were approximately $16.4 million, or $0.33 per diluted share, compared with approximately $12.8 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, in 2008. Net revenues were approximately $57.8 million in 2009 compared with $73.8 million in 2008.

1 Apr 2010

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics files Annual Report with Securities and Exchange Commission for 2009

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics announced today that it has filed its Annual Report with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the period ended December 31, 2009 on Form 10-K.

1 Apr 2010

Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners reports net loss of $7.24M for fourth-quarter 2009

Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that acquires, in-licenses, develops and commercializes prescription drugs for the treatment of diseases of the central nervous system, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009.

1 Apr 2010

Health IT developments piggyback on health laws, FCC plan

The health overhaul and other recent laws and proposals will have a broad impact on the health IT world.

1 Apr 2010

BELLUS Health initiates Phase I clinical study for NRM8499

BELLUS Health Inc. announced today that, on March 30, 2010, the Company initiated a Phase I clinical study for NRM8499, a prodrug of tramiprosate. NRM8499 is intended for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

1 Apr 2010

Implementation of wait time guarantees: Unfulfilled promises

The Wait Time Alliance (WTA) today expressed disappointment that some jurisdictions have still not fulfilled their 2007 promise to implement wait time guarantees, and other jurisdictions have implemented guarantees that are inconsistent and weak.

1 Apr 2010

Patient-safety incidents: 10% died

Nearly one million patient-safety incidents occurred among Medicare patients over the years 2006, 2007, 2008, a figure virtually unchanged since last year's annual study of patient safety by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. In all, the incidents were associated with $8.9 billion in costs. One in ten patients -- 99,180 individuals -- experiencing a patient-safety incident died as a result, the study found.

1 Apr 2010