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Brand-name prescription drug companies reached 14 deals with generic manufacturers to delay sale of generics in FY 2007

Brand-name prescription drug makers in fiscal year 2007 reached 14 agreements with generic drug makers to delay market entry of generic medications, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission, Reuters reports (Bartz, Reuters, 5/23).

28 May 2008

U.S. Government 'must take lead' in health care IT, former Rep. Johnson writes

There are online tools that "can remember what books you ordered over the last three years," so "why can't your doctor's computer remind him" of the details related to patients' prescription drugs, insurance or other procedures, former Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), a senior public policy adviser for Baker Donelson, writes in a Washington Times opinion piece.

28 May 2008

Bureaucracy has delayed plans for three FDA offices in China

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Friday said that Chinese bureaucracy has delayed plans to establish FDA offices in three cities -- Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou -- that would monitor exports of food, medications, medical devices and other consumer products to the U.S., the Associated Press reports.

28 May 2008

Express Scripts reaches $9.5 million settlement with 28 states over allegations of misleading consumers to obtain rebates

Officials from pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts on Tuesday said the company has agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by 28 states and Washington, D.C., alleging it defrauded the states and D.C., the AP/Denver Post reports.

28 May 2008

Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS organizations call for integration of TB interventions into country's HIV/AIDS programs

The Zimbabwe government should integrate tuberculosis interventions into its HIV/AIDS programs, HIV/AIDS service organizations and other health advocates said at a recent forum hosted by the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service in the country's capital of Harare, the Herald reports.

28 May 2008

Magnetic nanoparticles for cancer therapy

A measuring procedure developed in the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) can help to investigate in some detail the behaviour of magnetic nanoparticles which are used for cancer therapy.

28 May 2008

Novel approach to drug insolubility strengthens PolyTherics patent estate

Polytherics Ltd, a biopharmaceutical spin-out company from Imperial College London and the London School of Pharmacy that specialises in the targeted application of polymers to biopharmaceuticals, has announced the grant of a European patent on the application of polymer complexation technology to improve drug efficacy.

28 May 2008

Estrogen drives distinct, aggressive prostate cancer

Using a breakthrough technology, researchers led by a Weill Cornell Medical College scientist have pinpointed the hormone estrogen as a key player in about half of all prostate cancers.

28 May 2008

Medical errors - Is healthcare getting worse or better?

Most would say worse. And one of the many reasons is medical errors. Most Americans say the quality of care has not improved, and dissatisfaction among patients and caregivers has increased. The perceptions exist despite the efforts across the country to reduce medical errors.

28 May 2008

Cancer Research UK creates 'crack teams' to solve cancer's greatest mysteries

World leading scientists are to be targeted by Cancer Research UK and its development and commercialisation arm Cancer Research Technology (CRT), in an effort to tackle some of cancer's most pressing scientific challenges.

28 May 2008

FDA proposes major revisions to the physician labeling for prescription drugs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today proposed major revisions to the physician labeling for prescription drugs (including biological products) to provide better information about the effects of medicines used during pregnancy and breast-feeding.

28 May 2008

Scientists identify a brain mechanism underlying persistent cocaine craving

Scientists have identified a mechanism in the brain that helps to explain why craving for cocaine, and the risk of relapse, seems to increase in the weeks and months after drug use is stopped. The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

28 May 2008

New multi-million pound study to find the cause of Type 1 diabetes

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has awarded more than £3 million to fund a research centre that will investigate the causes of Type 1 diabetes - a condition that results from an immune attack on the body's insulin producing cells. The study, known as the JDRF Centre for Diabetes Genes, Autoimmunity and Prevention (D-GAP), aims to understand how and why Type 1 diabetes occurs, knowledge that may help develop future therapies with the aim of preventing the condition.

28 May 2008

Allergy - it's in the genes

In a world first scientists at theWestmead Millennium Institute have identified how a gene associated with allergic diseases such as asthma and eczema works, providing new hope for potential drug treatments.

28 May 2008

Global drug research programme comes to Diamond in Oxfordshire

Diamond has announced that USA-based global biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is the first industrial user at the UK's world class new research facility, Diamond Light Source

27 May 2008

First patient enrolled in phase III study of Bevacizumab and Trastuzumab in early breast cancer

A new international study for women with HER2-positive breast cancer is open for enrollment. The pivotal BETH (BEvacizumab and Trastuzumab Adjuvant Therapy in HER2-positive Breast Cancer) study is a Phase III clinical research trial that is investigating the benefits of combining two monoclonal antibodies, the anti-angiogenic, bevacizumab (Avastin) and the targeted therapy trastuzumab (Herceptin), together with chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with early stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

27 May 2008