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Lead 8A analog can treat osteosarcoma in children

Jiayuh Lin, PhD, and colleagues at Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a drug to target the most common cancerous bone tumor in children, osteosarcoma, using a version of the FDA-approved drug, Celebrex. The team will soon begin testing the drug using human and canine tumor cell lines thanks to a two-year, $200,000 grant from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer.

22 Jun 2012

Congress considers Medicare, FDA proposals

The Senate Finance Committee is once again talking deficit reduction and Medicare as both houses are "poised" to pass an FDA bill.

21 Jun 2012

Genetics play a significant role in determining side effects of opiates

Genetics play a significant role in determining which patients will suffer the most from the disturbing side effects of opiates, commonly prescribed painkillers for severe to moderate pain, according to a new Stanford University School of Medicine study, which pinpoints nausea, slowed breathing and potential for addiction as heritable traits.

21 Jun 2012

New understanding of how motor neurons die in spinal muscular atrophy patients

Cedars-Sinai's Regenerative Medicine Institute has pioneered research on how motor-neuron cell-death occurs in patients with spinal muscular atrophy, offering an important clue in identifying potential medicines to treat this leading genetic cause of death in infants and toddlers.

21 Jun 2012

What's at stake in the much-anticipated high court health law decision?

News outlets report on how the ruling will impact seniors, women and states, among other stakeholders. Reports also examine what might happen if the individual mandate is overturned but other elements of the law are left intact.

21 Jun 2012

Simple new procedure can remove impurities from pharmaceuticals

Scientists are reporting development of a simple new procedure for removing almost 98 percent of an important impurity that can contaminate prescription drugs and potentially increase the risk for adverse health effects in patients.

21 Jun 2012

FDA grants Orphan Drug Designation to Medgenics’ INFRADURE Biopump

Medgenics, Inc., the developer of Biopump, a novel technology for the sustained production and delivery of therapeutic proteins in patients using their own tissue, today announced that its INFRADURE Biopump has received Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Orphan Products Development (OOPD) for the treatment of hepatitis D.

21 Jun 2012

Review describes new classes of drugs that target androgens in novel ways

Prostate cancer cells require androgens including testosterone to grow. A recent review in the British Journal of Urology International describes new classes of drugs that target androgens in novel ways, providing alternatives to the traditional methods that frequently carry high side effects.

21 Jun 2012

FDA ODAC votes in favor of Onyx’s Kyprolis

Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) determined by a vote of 11-0 with 1 abstention that, in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior lines of therapy that included a proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory agent (IMiD), the benefit-risk assessment is favorable for the use of Kyprolis.

21 Jun 2012

Concordia research helps develop first brain map of love and desire

Thanks to modern science, we know that love lives in the brain, not in the heart. But where in the brain is it - and is it in the same place as sexual desire? A recent international study is the first to draw an exact map of these intimately linked feelings.

21 Jun 2012

Structure of human P-glycoprotein in a moving 3D computer model

A picture is worth 1,000 words when it comes to understanding how things work, but 3D moving pictures are even better. That's especially true for scientists trying to stop cancer by better understanding the proteins that make some chemotherapies unsuccessful.

21 Jun 2012

UMMS researcher receives Janssen Award for microRNA discovery

Longtime collaborators Victor R. Ambros, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and Gary B. Ruvkun, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, were awarded the 2012 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research today by Johnson & Johnson for their co-discovery of microRNA, tiny molecules that are now understood to play a powerful role in gene expression and regulation.

20 Jun 2012

Lobbying sinks efforts to impose restrictions on painkillers

Pharmacists and drugstores appear to have undone an effort to impose more strict controls on drug controls. Meanwhile, Accretive Health, the Chicago-based hospital-billing company which is under fire, is fighting back.

20 Jun 2012

Study identifies critical neurological factor in aggression

Pathological rage can be blocked in mice, researchers have found, suggesting potential new treatments for severe aggression, a widespread trait characterized by sudden violence, explosive outbursts and hostile overreactions to stress.

20 Jun 2012

Emergence of drug resistance to ARVs has potential to 'curb, and even reverse' gains against HIV

Noting that the "roll-out of antiretroviral treatment for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa has been accompanied by rising rates of drug resistance," Raph Hamers, a global health research fellow at the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam, and colleagues "call for improved patient management and the integration of population-based drug resistance surveillance into national treatment programs" in this BMJ analysis.

20 Jun 2012

State roundup: Retiree health costs soaring; Calif.'s duplicate surgical payments; Georgia's AIDS drug waiting list shrinks

Recession-plagued states diverted scarce money away from pensions to pay for more immediate concerns, leaving a $757 billion hole in the retirement funds covering millions of public employees, according to a study released Monday. … States also faced a $627 billion shortfall in health care services for retirees. Essentially, for every $1 they'll eventually have to pay out in health care, states had set aside only 5 cents.

20 Jun 2012

AstraZeneca, Rigel enter global license agreement for R256 inhaled JAK inhibitor to treat chronic asthma

AstraZeneca and Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced an exclusive worldwide license agreement for the global development and commercialization of R256, Rigel's inhaled JAK inhibitor shown to inhibit IL-13 and IL-4 signalling, which is being investigated as a treatment for moderate to severe chronic asthma. In preclinical research, R256 has been shown to reduce airway inflammation and improve lung function.

19 Jun 2012

DSM XD high cell density process technology granted patents in several countries

DSM Pharmaceutical Products, the custom manufacturing and technology business of Royal DSM N.V., announced today that several countries have granted patents or have given statements of patent allowance to its proprietary XD® high cell density process technology.

19 Jun 2012

Mass. nursing homes miss out on federal grant to curb inappropriate sedative use

Nursing Homes In Massachusetts will not get a federal grant to help them drive down use of antipsychotic drugs. In Kansas, officials launched a campaign to encourage reporting of elder abuse.

19 Jun 2012

New, comprehensive approach to treating underserved South Florida patients living with HIV/AIDS

Ushering in a new, comprehensive approach to treating underserved South Florida patients living with HIV/AIDS, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has announced a partnership with Magic Johnson Enterprises and Clear Health Alliance, a Medicaid specialty plan offered by Simply Healthcare Plans, a minority owned and operated managed care plan.

19 Jun 2012