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Rigel initiates Phase 3 clinical program for fostamatinib in patients with ITP

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the initiation of a Phase 3 clinical program for its oral SYK inhibitor, fostamatinib, in patients with ITP (immune thrombocytopenic purpura).

16 Jul 2014

First Edition: July 16, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about the Congressional Budget Office's latest estimate on federal health care spending.

16 Jul 2014

Drug paraphernalia triggers reward areas of brain differently in marijuana users

New research from The University of Texas at Dallas demonstrates that drug paraphernalia triggers the reward areas of the brain differently in dependent and non-dependent marijuana users.

16 Jul 2014

USAMRIID provides on-site laboratory support to current Ebola outbreak

Analysis of clinical samples from suspected Lassa fever cases in Sierra Leone showed that about two-thirds of the patients had been exposed to other emerging diseases, and nearly nine percent tested positive for Ebola virus.

16 Jul 2014

Research shows promise to speed up drug discovery for deadly diseases

Antibiotic resistance is depleting our arsenal against deadly diseases and infections, such as tuberculosis and Staph infections, but recent research shows promise to speed up the drug discovery process.

16 Jul 2014

Research sheds new light on brain's complicated barrier tissue

Research from the University of Copenhagen is shedding new light on the brain's complicated barrier tissue. The blood-brain barrier is an effective barrier which protects the brain, but which at the same time makes it difficult to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's.

16 Jul 2014

Game theory identifies ideal time to disrupt metastatic cancer cell cooperation

Cancer's no game, but researchers at Johns Hopkins are borrowing ideas from evolutionary game theory to learn how cells cooperate within a tumor to gather energy.

16 Jul 2014

Personalized medicine for breast cancer patients may be just around the corner

For breast cancer patients, the era of personalized medicine may be just around the corner, thanks to recent advances by USC Stem Cell researcher Min Yu and scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

16 Jul 2014

Smoking may increase suicide risk

Cigarette smokers are more likely to commit suicide than people who don't smoke, studies have shown. This reality has been attributed to the fact that people with psychiatric disorders, who have higher suicide rates, also tend to smoke.

16 Jul 2014

Viewpoints: 'Tradeoffs among access, quality and costs'; Obamacare as a political issue

One of the oft-repeated arguments in favor of the Affordable Care Act is that it will reduce people's need for more intensive care by increasing their access to preventive care.

16 Jul 2014

OSU creates new assay to test authenticity of primary drugs used to treat malaria

Chemists and students in science and engineering at Oregon State University have created a new type of chemical test, or assay, that's inexpensive, simple, and can tell whether or not one of the primary drugs being used to treat malaria is genuine - an enormous and deadly problem in the developing world.

16 Jul 2014

States grapple with mental illness issues; Oregon moves closer to limiting Medicaid patients' access to new hepatitis C drugs

The numbers, posted daily on the Cook County sheriff's website, would be alarming at an urgent care clinic, let alone a jail: On a Wednesday, 36 percent of all new arrivals report having a mental illness. On a Friday, it's 54 percent. But inside the razor wire framing the 96-acre compound, the faces and voices of the newly arrested confirm its accidental role as Chicago's treatment center of last resort for people with serious mental illnesses (Geller, 7/14).

16 Jul 2014

Research reveals why HIV remains a long-lasting infection

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has the ability to integrate into the human genome, making it extremely difficult to cure the infection. A new study by scientists at Seattle Children's Research Institute, University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that when HIV integrates into genes involved with cancer, these cells tend to reproduce to a greater extent than others HIV-infected cells.

16 Jul 2014

Cryptococcus gattii evolves as it spreads to temperate climates

Cryptococcus gattii, a virulent fungus that has invaded the Pacific Northwest is highly adaptive and warrants global "public health vigilance," according to a study by an international team led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

16 Jul 2014

Pfizer to in-license Absorption Systems' BCRP-MDCK cells

Absorption Systems, a leader in novel test systems for drug transporters, announces a license agreement with Pfizer Inc., in which Pfizer will in-license Absorption Systems' BCRP-MDCK cells. This cell line is stably transfected with the human ABCG2 gene, which codes for a protein known as BCRP (breast cancer resistance protein).

15 Jul 2014

Metvix PDT now available at Odette Cancer Centre as additional treatment option for NMSC patients

The Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in conjunction with Galderma Canada are pleased to announce that Metvix PDT (Photodynamic Therapy), is now available at the Odette Cancer Centre in Toronto as an additional treatment option for patients with NMSC (non-melanoma skin cancer).

15 Jul 2014

DARPins could revolutionize protein therapeutics

Integrating an INTEGRA VIAFLO 96 multichannel pipette into their high throughput expression facility has enabled Molecular Partners (Zurich, Switzerland) to streamline the discovery and development of a novel class of targeted protein therapeutics termed DARPins.

From INTEGRA Biosciences 15 Jul 2014

New potential avenues to predict and prevent ovarian cancer metastasis

Circulating tumor cells spread ovarian cancer through the bloodstream, homing in on a sheath of abdominal fatty tissue where it can grow and metastasize to other organs, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in Cancer Cell.

15 Jul 2014

Labelling people as pre-diabetic is drastically premature measure with no medical value

Labelling people with moderately high blood sugar as pre-diabetic is a drastically premature measure with no medical value and huge financial and social costs, say researchers from UCL and the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota.

15 Jul 2014