Drugs News and Research

RSS

Deep brain stimulation therapy promising against severe OCD

When obsessive-compulsive disorder is of crippling severity and drugs and behavior therapy can't help, there has been for just over a year a thread - or rather a wire - of hope. By inserting a thin electrode deep into the brain, doctors can precisely deliver an electrical current to a cord of the brain's wiring and soften the severity of the symptoms. "Deep brain stimulation" therapy for OCD won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2009 for extreme cases under its humanitarian device exemption.

19 Feb 2011

House to vote on FY11 budget bill, Senate likely to reject it

House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that Republicans had reached an agreement with Democrats to reduce the the number of pending amendments to a bill that would fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year, CQ reports (Carter, 2/17). "A final vote on the 2011 budget measure may come as soon as today. It then would go to the Senate, where the Democratic majority is likely to reject the proposal, raising the prospect of a government shutdown," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Faler, 2/18).

19 Feb 2011

AHF commends Congressman Hastings for securing additional $42M for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today commended United States Congressman Alcee Hastings (D, FL, 23rd District) for authoring, introducing and successfully shepherding a budget amendment to the current year's budget that secures crucial additional funding to address a growing crisis in the nation's AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP), a network of federal and state funded programs that provide life-saving HIV treatments to low income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS nationwide.

19 Feb 2011

GIBH, Saint Louis University form global research partnership to combat malaria

The Center for World Health & Medicine at Saint Louis University and China's Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health are forming a global research partnership that initially will focus on new treatments for malaria.

19 Feb 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

Factors Contributing to Health Of Women Worldwide: The Kaiser Family Foundation features a narrated slide tutorial by epidemiologist Laurel Spielberg on the health issues facing women around the world. The tutorial touches on issues such as economic status and biological, social, and cultural factors that affect women's health, as well as access to health services such as family planning (2/17).

19 Feb 2011

Kentucky, Virginia LapBand centers install Crospon's EndoFLIP system

Crospon, an Irish medical device developer based in Galway, has announced that its EndoFLIP system is now being used in two leading LapBand centers in Kentucky and Virginia.

19 Feb 2011

Boys get greater rush and more energy from caffeine than girls

Results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response study of the response of youth to caffeine found that, in general, boys get a greater rush and more energy from caffeine than girls.

18 Feb 2011

Researchers discover new 'driver gene' in oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer

CANCER RESEARCH UK scientists have pinpointed a key cancer-causing gene that, when overactive, triggers a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer to develop.

18 Feb 2011

Researchers identify CD19-L protein that facilitates recognition, destruction of leukemia cells

Scientists at the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases and The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles today announced a breakthrough discovery in understanding how the body fights leukemia.

18 Feb 2011

AHF criticizes President Obama's budget proposal for HIV/AIDS programs

Following the release of his proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, today criticized President Barack Obama and his administration for requests for budget funding levels for HIV/AIDS programs that are grossly inadequate to the need.

18 Feb 2011

Scientists investigate natural chemical compound in sea sponges to create novel anti-cancer drugs

Scientists in London are turning to sea sponges to help them learn more about anti-cancer drugs. Using his £106,079 grant from the Association for International Cancer Research Dr Matthew Fuchter and his team are investigating a naturally-occurring chemical found in the sea sponge.

18 Feb 2011

Cyclacel's CYC065 CDK inhibitor demonstrates potential against breast cancer resistant to trastuzumab

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced the publication of preclinical data in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), demonstrating that cyclin E plays a major role in making Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 positive (HER2+) breast cancer resistant to trastuzumab (Herceptin®), a widely used medicine for breast cancer patients who test positive for HER2.

18 Feb 2011

Longer looks: KHN's best health policy picks from thought-provoking publications

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions.

18 Feb 2011

New approaches for controlling sleeping sickness caused by trypanosomes

The research could eventually lead to new approaches for controlling sleeping sickness in humans and wasting diseases in livestock which are caused by trypanosomes carried by the bloodsucking tsetse fly.

18 Feb 2011

Report finds neglected diseases research funding up in 2009, funding for related non-profits down

"A rise in global funding for research into neglected diseases needs to be matched by a continued focus on delivering practical new ways to curb sickness in the developing world," according to the third annual report by the Global Funding of Innovation for Neglected Diseases released on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

18 Feb 2011

Sleeping Trojan horse technique resolves some difficulties in transporting metal ions into cells

A unique strategy developed by researchers at Cardiff University is opening up new possibilities for improving medical imaging.

18 Feb 2011

World's first cancer stem cell-targeting chemical missile

Deakin University medical scientists have created the world's first cancer stem cell-targeting chemical missile, placing them a step closer to creating a medical 'smart bomb' that would seek out and eradicate the root of cancer cells.

18 Feb 2011

Loyola offers stem cell transplants to older patients with leukemia and lymphoma

As the first baby boomers turn 65, Loyola University Hospital has begun offering stem cell transplants to leukemia and lymphoma patients who previously were too old to qualify.

18 Feb 2011

Opinions: U.S. foreign aid; Lay health workers

"The international affairs budget does more than just keep our nation safe - it bolsters our economy by creating jobs here and developing markets for U.S. goods and services overseas. It makes sense: effective development brings stability, economic development and a demand for goods and services," according to a Politico opinion piece by Reps. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) and Leonard Lance (R-N.J.).

18 Feb 2011

FDA grants miRagen's MGN-4893 orphan drug designation for treatment of polycythemia vera

miRagen Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients' lives by developing innovative microRNA (miRNA)-based therapeutics for cardiovascular and muscle disease, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to the company's compound MGN-4893 for the treatment of polycythemia vera, a myeloproliferative disease characterized by an overabundance of blood cells and platelets in the body.

18 Feb 2011

Drugs News and Research

Deep brain stimulation therapy promising against severe OCD

House to vote on FY11 budget bill, Senate likely to reject it

AHF commends Congressman Hastings for securing additional $42M for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs

GIBH, Saint Louis University form global research partnership to combat malaria

Recent releases in Global Health

Kentucky, Virginia LapBand centers install Crospon's EndoFLIP system

Boys get greater rush and more energy from caffeine than girls

Researchers discover new 'driver gene' in oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer

Researchers identify CD19-L protein that facilitates recognition, destruction of leukemia cells

AHF criticizes President Obama's budget proposal for HIV/AIDS programs

Scientists investigate natural chemical compound in sea sponges to create novel anti-cancer drugs

Cyclacel's CYC065 CDK inhibitor demonstrates potential against breast cancer resistant to trastuzumab

Longer looks: KHN's best health policy picks from thought-provoking publications

New approaches for controlling sleeping sickness caused by trypanosomes

Report finds neglected diseases research funding up in 2009, funding for related non-profits down

Sleeping Trojan horse technique resolves some difficulties in transporting metal ions into cells

World's first cancer stem cell-targeting chemical missile

Loyola offers stem cell transplants to older patients with leukemia and lymphoma

Opinions: U.S. foreign aid; Lay health workers

FDA grants miRagen's MGN-4893 orphan drug designation for treatment of polycythemia vera

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Latest News