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QOI and Quantel enter co-promotion agreement for Activis PDT Lasers

QLT Inc. today announced that its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, QLT Ophthalmics, Inc. ("QOI"), and Quantel Medical and its distributor, Quantel USA, Inc., have entered into a co-promotion agreement for the sale of Activis PDT Lasers used to activate Visudyne® during photodynamic therapy of primarily classic lesions in wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The lasers are manufactured by Quantel Medical and sold by Quantel USA, Inc. and will be promoted by both Quantel USA, Inc. and QOI's sales force to the retina community in the United States.

29 Nov 2010

FDA grants ACT clearance for Phase I/II clinical trial of hESC derived retinal cells in patients with SMD

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application to immediately initiate a Phase I/II multicenter clinical trial using retinal cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to treat patients with Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy (SMD), one of the most common forms of juvenile macular degeneration in the world. The decision removes the clinical hold that the FDA had placed on the trial.

22 Nov 2010

Phase 3 study of VEGF Trap-Eye regimen meets primary endpoint in patients with wet AMD

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer HealthCare announced that in two parallel Phase 3 studies in patients with the neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), all regimens of VEGF Trap-Eye (aflibercept ophthalmic solution), including VEGF Trap-Eye dosed every two months, successfully met the primary endpoint compared to the current standard of care, ranibizumab dosed every month.

22 Nov 2010

People to get free vision rehabilitation surgeries with launch of 2010 China-Africa Brightness Action

The launching ceremony for the "2010 China-Africa Brightness Action" was held at Deer Jet's fix base operation (FBO), Beijing Capital International Airport on November 18.

20 Nov 2010

Multinational team identifies novel retinal disease gene

A multinational team effort of Regensburg's Institute of Human Genetics, Washington University in St. Louis, other partners and Genomatix elucidated a transcriptional network in photoreceptors and thereby identified a novel retinal disease gene

19 Nov 2010

Popular Science names VisionCare's Implantable Miniature Telescope for AMD 'Best of What's New' 2010

VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies, Inc., a developer of advanced visual prosthetic devices, today announced the Implantable Miniature Telescope (by Dr. Isaac Lipshitz), designed to improve vision in patients with end-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is named "Best of What's New" 2010 by Popular Science magazine.

17 Nov 2010

JDRF, Amylin collaborate to support metreleptin study for type 1 diabetes

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they entered into a research collaboration agreement to provide financial support for a clinical proof-of-concept study to investigate the effects of metreleptin, an analog of the human hormone leptin, in patients with type 1 diabetes. Researchers at The University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center will conduct the study.

17 Nov 2010

Children's Hospital pediatric immunologist collaborates with European gene therapy researchers to study WAS syndrome

A pediatric immunologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia collaborated with European gene therapy researchers who achieved marked clinical improvements in two young children with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a very rare but often severe immunodeficiency disorder.

16 Nov 2010

OtoSCOPE method offers single-run genetic testing for hearing loss

Pinpointing the exact genetic cause of inherited deafness has always involved sequencing one gene at a time, a process that can take up to a year and cost roughly $1,000 per gene. It would cost around $75,000 to test all known deafness causing genes using this approach. Now University of Iowa researchers working with colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine have developed a test that can screen all of the genes known to cause deafness in a single run, in one to three months and for about $2,000.

16 Nov 2010

Report documents increase in R&D projects on developing world diseases

Drugmakers are now working on over 100 R&D projects designed to tackle diseases of the developing world and almost 80% of them are being carried out with non-industry partners, according to a report released on Wednesday by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA).

15 Nov 2010

Carter Center, Merck take steps to prevent river blindness in Latin America

Public health officials at the 20th Inter-American Conference on Onchocerciasis in Antigua, Guatemala, confirmed that more than one-third of all Latin Americans who ran the risk of contracting river blindness (onchocerciasis), a leading cause of preventable blindness, are no longer at risk.

12 Nov 2010

Bristol-Myers Squibb announces first large-scale diabetes initiative to develop self-management program

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation today announced Together on Diabetes: Communities Uniting to Meet America's Diabetes Challenge, a 5-year, $100 million initiative to help patients living with type 2 diabetes better manage their disease beyond the doors of their doctor's office in their homes and communities and for the course of their disease.

12 Nov 2010

Recommendations for safe and effective testing of artificial pancreas systems in real-life settings

Diabetes experts at a meeting convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) took the next step in advancing efforts toward the development of an artificial pancreas: putting forth clinical recommendations to ensure the safe and effective testing of artificial pancreas technology in real-life situations.

11 Nov 2010

Discovery of anti-parasitic drug mechanism could lead to new treatments for filarial diseases

In a major breakthrough that comes after decades of research and nearly half a billion treatments in humans, scientists have finally unlocked how a key anti-parasitic drug kills the worms brought on by the filarial diseases river blindness and elephantitis.

11 Nov 2010

Positive results from XOMA 052 study in patients with uveitis of Behcet's disease

XOMA Ltd., a leader in the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies, announced additional positive results from an open-label pilot study of XOMA 052 in patients with uveitis of Behcet's disease who were suffering from vision-threatening exacerbations despite maximal doses of immunosuppressive medicines.

10 Nov 2010

Researchers study drug's ability to restore retinal health in eyes of diabetic patients

One drug's startling ability to restore retinal health in the eyes of diabetic mice has researchers wanting to learn more about how it works and whether it might do the same for people.

10 Nov 2010

Researchers identify gene linked to melanoma metastasis

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a gene linked to the spread of eye melanoma.

8 Nov 2010

FIP Annual Meeting to improve global health through advances in pharmaceutical sciences

Global health crises like the recent cholera outbreak in Haiti emphasize the need for new ways to prevent deadly diseases from becoming widespread in developing countries. International experts and scientists will present research ranging from developing a freeze-dried cholera vaccine to new methods of delivering medicines to underserved populations at the 2010 International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress (PSWC) in association with the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, La., Nov. 13-18.

4 Nov 2010

Eye implant restores some vision in retinitis pigmentosa

According to a new scientific breakthrough, a device - a tiny, three-by-three millimetre microchip, has allowed patients with inherited blindness to detect objects with their eyes, unlike a rival approach that uses an external camera. The procedure details are outlined in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

3 Nov 2010

Effort exerted on cognitive task influenced by masked action or inaction cues

People may have a better memory for birthdays that are closer to their own: Volunteers recalling their friends' birthdays tended to remember birthdays that were closer to their own than birthdays that were farther away from their own birthday.