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Janssen Biotech receives FDA approval for Remicade to treat UC in children

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Remicade (infliximab) to treat moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) in children older than 6 years who have had inadequate response to conventional therapy.

26 Sep 2011

Letrozole reduces risk of breast cancer recurrences and death in post-menopausal women

Results from the longest-running trial comparing tamoxifen with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole show unequivocally that letrozole has withstood the test of time and continues to prevent breast cancer recurrences and reduce the risk of death in post-menopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer.

26 Sep 2011

Alexion receives FDA approval for Soliris to treat atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Soliris (eculizumab) to treat patients with atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (aHUS), a rare and chronic blood disease that can lead to kidney (renal) failure and is also associated with increased risk of death and stroke.

26 Sep 2011

Viewpoints: Concerns that AIDS fight is losing steam; Pharmacy choice bill is praised; Texas sex-ed policies questioned

The considerable progress in recent years - including the 22-fold increase in the number of people receiving anti-retroviral drugs between 2001-2010 - has been due to scientific breakthroughs and to civil society's efforts to keep AIDS on the political agenda. This is now changing.

23 Sep 2011

Roundup: Texas House Dems ask CMS to reject Medicaid waiver request; Jobs lost as Ariz. mental health Medicaid cuts kick in

The nine House Democrats from Texas want the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reject their state's request that Medicaid beneficiaries get their prescription drugs through managed care plans.

23 Sep 2011

More funding for leishmaniasis treatment could save more lives in East African outbreak

"East Africa's worst outbreak in a decade of visceral leishmaniasis, the deadliest parasitic disease after malaria, could ease if donors paid more attention to the illness," which infects approximately 500,000 people and kills up to 60,000 annually in 70 countries, the non-profit group "Leishmaniasis East Africa Platform, or LEAP, said in a statement from Nairobi" on Friday, Bloomberg reports.

23 Sep 2011

Urgency of antimalarial drug resistance must be recognized

Arjen Dondorp, deputy director of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Research Unit at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, and colleagues discuss the need to combat antimalarial drug resistance in this New England Journal of Medicine opinion piece, writing, "Researchers, funders, and policy leaders must recognize the urgency of the problem, take action to address simultaneously several important knowledge gaps, and focus immediately on eliminating the threat of artemisinin resistance."

23 Sep 2011

Synthetic lectins inhibit HIV from entering cells

University of Utah researchers have discovered a new class of compounds that stick to the sugary coating of the AIDS virus and inhibit it from infecting cells - an early step toward a new treatment to prevent sexual transmission of the virus.

23 Sep 2011

Drug shortages fuel increases in cost of care, poor outcomes

A severe shortage of drugs for chemotherapy, infections and other serious ailments is endangering patients and forcing hospitals to buy life-saving medications from secondary suppliers at huge markups because they can't get them any other way.

23 Sep 2011

Six ways to prevent coronary artery disease

In honor of National Cholesterol Education Month, Hotze Health & Wellness Center (HHWC) is encouraging both men and women to take a proactive role in healthy aging, specifically heart disease prevention. HHWC is advocating effective measures to prevent heart attacks and is shedding new light on cholesterol myths and the dangers of cholesterol-lowering (statin) drugs.

23 Sep 2011

First Edition: September 23, 2011

In today's headlines, the skinny on how health policy issues played in Thursday night's GOP presidential primary debate.

23 Sep 2011

National HIV/AIDS Strategy meeting to be held at UAB

The White House Office of National AIDS Policy is holding a series of National HIV/AIDS Strategy Implementation Dialogues across the country to examine critical issues and encourage action and collaboration at the state and local levels. The first meeting, focusing on incorporating prevention and care research into HIV programs, is being held at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011.

23 Sep 2011

Multi-donor program improves availability of essential medicines in Zimbabwe's public health sector

IRIN reports on "the improved availability of essential medicines in Zimbabwe's public health sector" as a result of "a multi-donor program started in 2008 through collaboration between the government, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) Zimbabwe, the European Union (E.U.), the U.K., Australia, Canada and Ireland."

23 Sep 2011

NIH honors Utah biochemist with Pioneer Award for dsRNA research

University of Utah biochemist Brenda L. Bass, Ph.D., has dedicated her career to following the path less traveled.

23 Sep 2011

New microbicide may block AIDS virus from infecting cells

23 Sep 2011

Adeno-associated virus type 2 kills human breast cancer cells in lab

A nondisease-causing virus kills human breast cancer cells in the laboratory, creating opportunities for potential new cancer therapies, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers who tested the virus on three different breast cancer types that represent the multiple stages of breast cancer development.

23 Sep 2011

Adamis receives patents for APC-200 prostate cancer drug in South Africa, Singapore

Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, today announced the technology which constitutes its compound APC-200 was recently granted patents in Singapore and South Africa. These patents significantly strengthen the Adamis APC-200 patent portfolio for the use of APC-200 in the treatment of early and late stage prostate cancer.

23 Sep 2011

Study: Opioid drugs can increase risk of pneumonia in older adults

Opioids -- a class of medicines commonly given for pain -- were associated with a higher risk of pneumonia in a study of 3,061 adults, aged 65 to 94, e-published in advance of publication in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

23 Sep 2011

USPTO issues patent for Lixte's LB-100 to treat cancer

John S. Kovach, M.D., Chair, Board of Directors and CEO of Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc., announces that the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent on its lead compound, LB-100, as well as a number of structurally related compounds, which has shown promising anti-cancer activity.

23 Sep 2011

Depression and stroke: Analysis of studies finds a connect

A latest study shows that people who are depressed may be a little more likely than others to suffer a stroke down the road. Looking at 28 past studies, researchers estimated there would be 106 extra cases of stroke per 100,000 depressed people each year, 22 of them fatal.

22 Sep 2011