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WHO, UNICEF issue guide, call for more research into medicines for children

Along with the release of a WHO-UNICEF guide on medicines for children, the U.N. agencies on Friday said the guide "exposed dangerous shortfalls" in medicines designed for children and called for more research into treating children, Reuters reports. "While effective medicines exist to fight disease and treat life-threatening conditions like malnutrition, formulations suitable for children are often difficult to source," Francisco Blanco, UNICEF's chief of medicines and nutrition, said, according to the news service.

3 May 2010

Landec announces acquisition of Lifecore Biomedical from Warburg Pincus Private Equity

Landec Corporation, a materials science company that develops and markets patented polymer products for food, agriculture, personal care and drug delivery applications, today announced that it has acquired Lifecore Biomedical, Inc. from Warburg Pincus Private Equity IX, LP. When acquired by Warburg Pincus in March 2008, Lifecore was comprised of two divisions, the Dental Division and the Hyaluronan Division. The Dental Division was merged into a Warburg Pincus portfolio company.

3 May 2010

FDA issues advisory on prostate cancer drugs

Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH) agonists, a class of medications primarily used to treat men with prostate cancer, have been associated with a small increased risk for diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and sudden death in men treated with one of the medications, according to a preliminary and ongoing analysis of several studies by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

3 May 2010

Kids' health can suffer when parents must choose between health care and basic necessities

"The health of children is harmed when families are forced to choose between medical care and basic household necessities such as food, rent and utilities, a new study found," HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report writes. "The study included 6,447 low-income caregivers with children ranging in age from newborn to 3 years.

3 May 2010

Acucela to present data on ACU-4429 oral visual cycle modulator for dry AMD at Retina International meeting

Acucela, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing new treatments for blinding eye diseases, announced today that Ryo Kubota, M.D., Ph.D., Acucela's chairman, president and chief executive officer, has been invited to participate in Retina International's annual Scientific & Medical Advisory Board meeting being held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 3, 2010.

3 May 2010

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics seeks FDA orphan drug status for ICT-107 dendritic-cell based vaccine for GBM

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics announced today it has filed an orphan drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its cancer treatment candidate ICT-107. ICT-107 is a dendritic-cell based cancer vaccine product which targets glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most prevalent, aggressive and malignant form of primary brain tumors.

3 May 2010

Penwest Pharmaceuticals reports net income of $3.9 million for first-quarter 2010

Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. Compared with the first quarter of 2009, first quarter 2010 revenues increased sharply to $8.8 million, and operating expenses decreased by 20%. The Company had net income of $0.12 per share for the first quarter of 2010.

3 May 2010

FDA approves Abbott's CREON sNDA including dosing guidance for treating EPI due to CP, pancreatectomy

Abbott announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for CREON® (pancrelipase) Delayed-Release Capsules that now includes dosing guidance in the prescribing information specific to patients with limited production of enzymes in the pancreas (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency) due to chronic pancreatitis (CP) or removal of the pancreas (pancreatectomy). Prior to this FDA approval, dosing guidance for medications such as CREON was based on patients with cystic fibrosis.

3 May 2010

Stealth interventions may help people eat better, exercise more: Study

How do you get college students to eat better? A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests that a "stealth" strategy of raising the students' awareness of environmental and social issues related to food can persuade them to eat more veggies and less ice cream.

3 May 2010

PolyTouch Medical files Premarket 510(k) application for PatchAssist laparoscopic mesh deployment device

PolyTouch Medical Ltd., a leading developer of laparoscopic hernia mesh placement technologies, today announced that it has filed a Premarket 510(k) Application with the US Food and Drug Administration for PatchAssist, an Innovative Laparoscopic Mesh Deployment and Placement Device that enables accurate mesh placement in laparoscopic ventral hernia repair potentially reducing procedure time by 30%-50%.

3 May 2010

McNeil Consumer Healthcare implements voluntary recall of infant and children's liquid products

Working in consultation with the United States Food and Drug Administration, McNeil Consumer Healthcare is implementing a voluntary recall of infant and children's liquid products due to manufacturing deficiencies which may affect quality, purity or potency.

3 May 2010

Scripps Research Institute awarded grant to design assays for exploring potential target for obesity, Type 2 diabetes

The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded a $1.3 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a series of tests at its Florida campus to help explore the potential of a protein that has emerged as a highly attractive target for the treatment of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

3 May 2010

Report highlights lack of humanitarian access to Cyclone Nargis survivors in Myanmar

"Almost two years after Cyclone Nargis killed nearly 140,000 people in Myanmar, the repression of rights in areas hit by the cyclone continues and the humanitarian space in the country is shrinking instead of growing as originally hoped, a [Human Rights Watch] report released on Thursday said," Reuters AlertNet reports.

3 May 2010

FDA sets new safety standards for transportation of food

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking commercial food transporters to follow new guidance the agency is issuing today to reduce the chances of physical, chemical, biological and other risks during transportation of foods while the agency reviews current food safety transportation regulations.

3 May 2010

Advaxis advances lead prostate cancer immunotherapeutic toward clinical trials

Advaxis, the live, attenuated Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) immunotherapy company, is advancing the clinical development of its lead prostate cancer immunotherapeutic toward clinical trials.

3 May 2010

Dieters who change their surroundings can easily adhere to diet: Researchers

According to a new finding by a team of Cornell University researchers, dieters who focus on changing their surroundings find it easier to adhere to their diet. Understandably, they also report losing the most weight.

3 May 2010

Leptin hormone controls immune’s response to sepsis: Study

The hormone leptin, typically associated with body weight regulation, works within the central nervous system (CNS) to aid the immune system's defense against sepsis, researchers say.

3 May 2010

AVANIR Pharmaceuticals announces filing of Complete Response to FDA Approvable Letter for Zenvia

AVANIR Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVNR) today announced the submission of its Complete Response to the October 2006 Approvable Letter issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Zenvia™ (dextromethorphan/quinidine) for the treatment of pseudobulbar affect (PBA). AVANIR expects the FDA to classify the response as a Class 2 resubmission, which would result in an expected review period of 180 days and potential approval of Zenvia in the fourth calendar quarter of 2010.

3 May 2010

Researchers explore use of nanomedicine techniques for treatment of diseases in children

"Children are not small adults"—pediatricians say that's what makes their specialty different from the practice of medicine in adults. For similar reasons, researchers exploring the medical uses of nanotechnology believe that the use of molecular-level nanomedicine techniques in children will also require its own specialty.

3 May 2010

FDA oks 'vaccine' to treat prostate cancer

Provenge, developed by Dendreon Corporation, is the first approved "treatment that uses a so-called cancer vaccine, a drug that trains the body's own immune system to fight the disease," The New York Times reports.

3 May 2010

Food News and Research

WHO, UNICEF issue guide, call for more research into medicines for children

Landec announces acquisition of Lifecore Biomedical from Warburg Pincus Private Equity

FDA issues advisory on prostate cancer drugs

Kids' health can suffer when parents must choose between health care and basic necessities

Acucela to present data on ACU-4429 oral visual cycle modulator for dry AMD at Retina International meeting

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics seeks FDA orphan drug status for ICT-107 dendritic-cell based vaccine for GBM

Penwest Pharmaceuticals reports net income of $3.9 million for first-quarter 2010

FDA approves Abbott's CREON sNDA including dosing guidance for treating EPI due to CP, pancreatectomy

Stealth interventions may help people eat better, exercise more: Study

PolyTouch Medical files Premarket 510(k) application for PatchAssist laparoscopic mesh deployment device

McNeil Consumer Healthcare implements voluntary recall of infant and children's liquid products

Scripps Research Institute awarded grant to design assays for exploring potential target for obesity, Type 2 diabetes

Report highlights lack of humanitarian access to Cyclone Nargis survivors in Myanmar

FDA sets new safety standards for transportation of food

Advaxis advances lead prostate cancer immunotherapeutic toward clinical trials

Dieters who change their surroundings can easily adhere to diet: Researchers

Leptin hormone controls immune’s response to sepsis: Study

AVANIR Pharmaceuticals announces filing of Complete Response to FDA Approvable Letter for Zenvia

Researchers explore use of nanomedicine techniques for treatment of diseases in children

FDA oks 'vaccine' to treat prostate cancer

Understanding cultivated meat and its global potential eBook

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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