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Genotoxic impurities in prescription drugs

Drug manufacturers have been adjusting to strict new government standards that limit the amount of potentially harmful impurities in medicine, according to the cover story of the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine. The impurities are "genotoxic," capable of damaging the DNA in genes.

30 Sep 2010

Dyax, CMIC enter agreement to develop and commercialize DX-88 for HAE treatment

Dyax Corp. and CMIC Co., Ltd, announced today an agreement to develop and commercialize subcutaneous DX-88 (ecallantide) for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE) and other angioedema indications in Japan.

30 Sep 2010

Scientists use NMR technology to improve protein purification in drug development

The purification of drug components is a large hurdle facing modern drug development. This is particularly true of drugs that utilize proteins, which are notoriously difficult to separate from other potentially deadly impurities. Scientists within the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to understand and improve an important protein purification process.

30 Sep 2010

ASU receives grant to unravel membrane proteins in host-pathogen interaction

Arizona State University has been awarded a $7.7 million grant for the next five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, to unravel the structures of membrane proteins that play a key role in protection against infectious diseases.

30 Sep 2010

Researchers explain why obesity is resistant to treatment

New research provides evidence of the vicious cycle created when an obese individual overeats to compensate for reduced pleasure from food.Obese individuals have fewer pleasure receptors and overeat to compensate, according to a study by University of Texas at Austin senior research fellow and Oregon Research Institute senior scientist Eric Stice and his colleagues published this week in The Journal of Neuroscience.

30 Sep 2010

NIH awards three grants to explore novel treatment strategies for muscular dystrophy

Three grants totaling more than $4.5 million, from agencies of the National Institutes of Health, will be used to explore novel treatment strategies for muscular dystrophy.

30 Sep 2010

Triple negative breast cancer patients with BRCA gene mutations have low risk of recurrence: Research

Patients with triple negative breast cancer that also have mutations in the BRCA gene appear to have a lower risk of recurrence, compared to those with the same disease without the deleterious genetic mutation, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

30 Sep 2010

MicroRNAs assay may allow better targeted therapy for lung cancer patients

A test based on a panel of microRNAs under development by Rosetta Genomics, Ltd., in Rehovot, Israel, may allow for more precise diagnosis and better targeted therapy for patients with lung cancer.

30 Sep 2010

Washington University receives award to develop diagnostic tools for heart, lung diseases using nanotechnology

An $18 million research program headed by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will research therapies and diagnostic tools for heart and lung diseases that use nanotechnology.

30 Sep 2010

New form of immunotherapy increases survival in children with neuroblastoma

Administering a new form of immunotherapy to children with neuroblastoma, a nervous system cancer, increased the percentage of those who were alive and free of disease progression after two years, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and fellow institutions. The percentage rose from 46 percent for children receiving a standard therapy to 66 percent for children receiving immunotherapy plus standard therapy, according to the study published in the Sept. 30, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

30 Sep 2010

Senate Committee: Indian Health Service hired cons, let workers steal drugs, excessive time off

The Associated Press: "The federal Indian Health Service has hired convicted criminals, failed to stop employees from stealing narcotics and allowed workers to take paid leave for more than a year while being investigated for misconduct, a federal investigation has found.

30 Sep 2010

New $1.76M study seeks to identify novel methods of diagnosing osteoporosis

A $1.76 million study at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute seeks to identify new methods of diagnosing osteoporosis and inform the development of next-generation drugs to treat the bone disease.

30 Sep 2010

Zyclara 3.75% more effective than cryotherapy alone in treatment of Actinic Keratoses: Study

Results from a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, multicentred study just published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology shows that treating Actinic Keratoses (AK) with imiquimod 3.75% (Zyclara®) following cryotherapy was more effective than cryotherapy alone in reducing total AK lesion count and achieving complete clearance of AK.

30 Sep 2010

COE on Brain Aging at NYU Langone establishes Lewy Body Disease Center

The Center of Excellence (COE) on Brain Aging at NYU Langone Medical Center has established a specialty center for the diagnosis and treatment of Lewy Body Disease, a multi-system disease involving disturbances of cognition, behavior, sleep and autonomic function. Lewy Body Disease, or LBD, affects an estimated 1.3 million individuals in the United States and is widely misdiagnosed because LBD symptoms closely resemble those of other more commonly known diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

30 Sep 2010

Research shows dexamethasone treatment effective for bacterial meningitis

New research shows that an intravenous (IV) treatment may cut a person's risk of dying from bacterial meningitis. The research is published in the September 29, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The treatment is called dexamethasone.

30 Sep 2010

Increase in sales of new antidepressants not linked to decline in suicide rate

Many researchers have studied the relationship between the increase in sales of new antidepressants in recent decades and a simultaneous decline in the suicide rate. In a study based on figures from the Nordic countries, researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health found no evidence that increased sales of the new medicines could be linked to a lower suicide rate. The researchers also did not find any relationship between reduced sales of the older and more toxic antidepressants and a reduction in suicide rates.

30 Sep 2010

U.N. agencies' report examines global progress in fight against HIV/AIDS

"A record 1.2 million people in low- and middle-income countries started antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS in 2009" - a 30 percent increase from the previous year and a 13-fold increase in six years, according to a joint report released Tuesday by the WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS, Reuters reports. In total, the report found that 5.25 million people received antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2009, three-quarters of them living in Africa (Migiro, 9/28).

30 Sep 2010

Researchers develop genetic screening method to identify drug-resistant HCV strains

In recent human trials for a promising new class of drug designed to target the hepatitis C virus (HCV) without shutting down the immune system, some of the HCV strains being treated exhibited signs of drug resistance.

30 Sep 2010

NABP seeks to educate public about rogue Internet drug outlets, counterfeit medications

Earlier this year, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy® (NABP®) was introduced to the AWARxE campaign, which was created and implemented by the Minnesota Pharmacists Foundation in 2007. Moved by the power of the campaign, NABP obtained the AWARxE program so that its message could be shared on a national level.

30 Sep 2010

Researchers receive NIH award to investigate regenerative potential of retinal cells

Zhang and co-principal investigators Sheng Ding, PhD, from The Scripps Research Institute, and Thomas Reh, PhD from the University of Washington, received the highest possible scores for their proposal to investigate the regenerative potential of retinal cells. Their long-term goal is to restore visual function lost through diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

30 Sep 2010

Drugs News and Research

Genotoxic impurities in prescription drugs

Dyax, CMIC enter agreement to develop and commercialize DX-88 for HAE treatment

Scientists use NMR technology to improve protein purification in drug development

ASU receives grant to unravel membrane proteins in host-pathogen interaction

Researchers explain why obesity is resistant to treatment

NIH awards three grants to explore novel treatment strategies for muscular dystrophy

Triple negative breast cancer patients with BRCA gene mutations have low risk of recurrence: Research

MicroRNAs assay may allow better targeted therapy for lung cancer patients

Washington University receives award to develop diagnostic tools for heart, lung diseases using nanotechnology

New form of immunotherapy increases survival in children with neuroblastoma

Senate Committee: Indian Health Service hired cons, let workers steal drugs, excessive time off

New $1.76M study seeks to identify novel methods of diagnosing osteoporosis

Zyclara 3.75% more effective than cryotherapy alone in treatment of Actinic Keratoses: Study

COE on Brain Aging at NYU Langone establishes Lewy Body Disease Center

Research shows dexamethasone treatment effective for bacterial meningitis

Increase in sales of new antidepressants not linked to decline in suicide rate

U.N. agencies' report examines global progress in fight against HIV/AIDS

Researchers develop genetic screening method to identify drug-resistant HCV strains

NABP seeks to educate public about rogue Internet drug outlets, counterfeit medications

Researchers receive NIH award to investigate regenerative potential of retinal cells

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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