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WHO, MSF highlight poor health situation in Southern Sudan

Three quarters of people in South Sudan, which has a population of 8 million, do not have access to health care, and 10 percent of children there and in Darfur die before the age of 1, Mohammad Abdur Rab, the WHO's representative to Sudan, said Thursday, Reuters/ABC News reports.

7 Nov 2009

Genetix Pharmaceuticals develops a gene therapy product to treat ALD

Genetix Pharmaceuticals, a leader in gene therapy of somatic stem cells, announced today the company’s clinical program to treat Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). The company is developing a gene therapy product in collaboration with Professor Patrick Aubourg and Doctor Nathalie Cartier of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).

7 Nov 2009

PPMD awards $75,000 grant to University of California professor for Duchenne muscular dystrophy research

Patricia A. Furlong, Founding President and CEO of Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), the largest non-profit organization in the United States focused on finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne), announced today the latest recipient of the End Duchenne Grant Award Program.

6 Nov 2009

Gonorrhea medication may help fight cancer

Drugs sometimes have beneficial side effects. A glaucoma treatment causes luscious eyelashes. A blood pressure drug also aids those with a rare genetic disease. The newest surprise discovered by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is a gonorrhea medication that might help battle cancer.

6 Nov 2009

AARP urge Idaho's U.S. Representatives to support health care reform legislation

As the debate over health care reform reaches a fevered pitch and the House readies to vote on critical health care reform legislation in the coming days - AARP is calling on Idaho's U.S. Representatives to support the bill. The AARP-backed Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), which will close the Medicare prescription drug "doughnut hole" and tackle soaring insurance premiums, serves to help hundreds of thousands of Idahoans.

6 Nov 2009

National Institutes of Health grants $6-million for brain disease research

Brown University, in collaboration with two other institutions, has been awarded a five-year, $6-million National Institutes of Health program project grant to help determine how a virus that can cause a rare brain disease attaches to host cells.

6 Nov 2009

H1N1 is now most dominant flu strain worldwide, WHO says

The H1N1 (swine flu) virus is now the dominant flu strain worldwide, the WHO reported Thursday, with the virus accounting for up to 70 percent of the flu viruses sampled in some countries, the Associated Press reports.

6 Nov 2009

ART as part of HIV prevention strategy supported by WHO

"AIDS drugs should be given to all who need them to reduce new infections, the World Health Organization said," following a three-day meeting on the topic of using antiretroviral therapy (ART) to help prevent the spread of HIV, Bloomberg reports. "Providing more antiretroviral drugs 'will achieve a significant transmission benefit,' Teguest Guerma, interim director of the WHO's AIDS department, said … 'In the past, there has been a false dichotomy between prevention and treatment. …'That is really what has been corrected. Prevention and treatment are two faces of the same coin'" (Bennett, 11/5).

6 Nov 2009

Neurogen announces financial results for the third quarter of 2009

Neurogen Corporation, a drug development company historically focused on drugs for psychiatric and neurological disorders, today announced financial and operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

6 Nov 2009

"No Drugs Down the Drain" outreach campaign in Sacramento

California American Water has designated the week of November 9, 2009 as "No Drugs Down the Drain" week for its Sacramento service area as part of a national campaign sponsored by public and private agencies alike toward the common mission of reducing pharmaceutical pollution in our source water supplies.

6 Nov 2009

NYUCN incorporates Epocrates software into its nursing program curriculum

Epocrates, Inc., developer of popular clinical reference and decision support tools, announced today that New York University College of Nursing (NYUCN) will provide its graduate students with the company’s mobile software. Building upon its history of nursing excellence, NYUCN has incorporated Epocrates® software and the use of mobile devices into its comprehensive graduate curriculum.

6 Nov 2009

San Francisco and Berkeley miss opportunity to help smokers quit

San Francisco and Berkeley missed an opportunity to help smokers quit when the cities moved all tobacco sales out of pharmacies, according to a new Bay Area health initiative. Instead of having smokers buy cigarettes in convenience stores and at other retailers, smokers should buy cigarettes only at pharmacy counters, says Stuart Skorman, founder of Elephant Pharmacy.

6 Nov 2009

Future for magnetic nanoparticles appears even brighter

Whether it's magnetic nanoparticles (mNPs) giving an army of 'therapeutically armed' white blood cells direction to invade a deadly tumour's territory, or the use of mNPs to target specific nerve channels and induce nerve-led behaviour (such as the life-dependant thumping of our hearts), mNPs have come a long way in the past decade.

6 Nov 2009

New findings may lead to novel therapeutic approaches for HIV and prostate cancer

New Haven, Conn.-Researchers at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body's immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells. Their findings, published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for these diseases.

6 Nov 2009

FDA grants orphan drug designation for Sunesis Pharmaceuticals' voreloxin

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted voreloxin orphan drug designation for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Sunesis is currently conducting two Phase 2 clinical trials of voreloxin in AML: a single-agent study, known as REVEAL-1, of voreloxin in newly diagnosed elderly AML patients unlikely to benefit from standard induction chemotherapy and a study evaluating voreloxin in combination with cytarabine in relapsed/refractory AML.

6 Nov 2009

Scientists receive $3 million from NIH to uncover how plants make medicinal compounds

Scientists at Michigan State University are receiving nearly $3 million from the National Institutes of Health to uncover how several popular plants make medicinal compounds.

6 Nov 2009

NewLink Genetics announces closing of its $30M Series C financing

NewLink Genetics Corporation announced today that it has closed a $30 million Series C financing to accelerate the clinical development of its therapeutic cancer products. Total cash raised in 2009 under a combination of the previously announced Series D Preferred and the remaining shares in the Series C Preferred totaled just under $20 million.

6 Nov 2009

Declining kidney function linked to higher risk of heart failure in individuals with or without kidney disease

Declining kidney function is linked to a higher risk of heart failure, heart attack, peripheral arterial disease, and early death in individuals with or without kidney disease, according to a pair of studies appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).

6 Nov 2009

Tel Aviv University's new LifeFlow device proves beneficial for paramedics

When paramedics rush to the scene of a multi-car pileup or a terror attack, their first task is to assess who needs immediate care. But blood hemorrhaging can obscure damage, and the gruesome mess means paramedics can't always determine who should be treated first.

6 Nov 2009