Therapeutics News and Research

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40% of community pharmacists don't tell parents they are dispensing off-label drugs to children

Forty per cent of community pharmacists have dispensed an off-label drug to a child in the last month, according to research published in the July issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

12 Jul 2007

New use for a cell toxin found to inhibit survival proteins in cancer cells

A chemically-modified version of a mitochondrial toxin long used to control species of invasive fish in lakes has been found to selectively inhibit two "survival proteins" in cancer cells.

11 Jul 2007

Baxter presents findings from the ADAPT study

Baxter Healthcare Corporation has announced the presentation of findings from the ADAPT (Analysis of Data from ADVATE Prospective Trials) study program database showing a statistically significant relationship between the duration of time spent with factor VIII blood levels below one international unit per deciliter (1 IU/dL, one percent of normal factor VIII level) and an increase in the annual bleed rate in people with hemophilia A.

11 Jul 2007

Abiogen licenses RFB4 antibody from Cancer Research Technology

Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT), the oncology-focused development and commercialisation company, today announces it has agreed an exclusive worldwide licence with Abiogen Pharma S.p.A. (Italy).

11 Jul 2007

Attitudes and experiences of community pharmacists towards paediatric off-label prescribing

11 Jul 2007

Gene therapy offers promising approach to tackle pancreatic cancer

A molecularly engineered therapy selectively embeds a gene in pancreatic cancer that shrinks or eradicates tumors, inhibits metastasis, and prolongs survival with virtually no toxicity, researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the July 9 edition of Cancer Cell.

10 Jul 2007

Pieris progresses proprietary asthma program

Pieris AG, a bio-pharmaceutical company developing Anticalins, a novel class of targeted human protein therapeutics, today announced significant progress in validating novel, effective products for the potential treatment of asthma.

10 Jul 2007

Breast enlargements in just over an hour!

Women in the UK could be getting breast enlargements in their lunch time as soon as 2008, reports Lisa Melton in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the Society of Chemical Industry.

9 Jul 2007

Roche and Alnylam form RNAi therapeutics alliance

Roche and the US-based biopharmaceutical company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a major alliance in which Roche obtains a non-exclusive license to Alnylam's technology platform for developing RNAi (RNA interference) therapeutics.

9 Jul 2007

Genetic mutation that may alter response to cancer therapeutics found

Researchers from Eli Lilly & Company and the Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today announced finding a novel recurring mutation of the gene AKT1 in breast, colorectal and ovarian cancers.

4 Jul 2007

A view on new drugs for macular degeneration

Restricting use of drugs for macular degeneration to patients who have already gone blind in one eye is "unacceptable" concludes the July issue of Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB).

4 Jul 2007

Discovery of two effective antibodies for SARS

An international team of investigators has identified the first human antibodies that can neutralize different strains of the virus responsible for outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

4 Jul 2007

Fat kills cancer!

Researchers in Slovakia have been able to derive mesenchymal stem cells from human adipose, or fat, tissue and engineer them into "suicide genes" that seek out and destroy tumors like tiny homing missiles.

3 Jul 2007

Discovery of method to identify how cancer evades the immune system

One of the fundamental traits of a tumor - how it avoids the immune system - might become its greatest vulnerability, according to researchers from the University of Southern California. Their findings, demonstrated in human breast and colorectal cancers, indicate that a technique for determining a tumor's "immune signature," could be useful for diagnosing and treating specific cancers.

3 Jul 2007

Amphinase molecule from frog could provide first drug treatment for brain tumours

A synthetic version of a molecule found in the egg cells of the Northern Leopard frog (Rana pipiens) could provide the world with the first drug treatment for brain tumours.

27 Jun 2007

New gene therapy technique for Parkinson's

According to a new study a novel gene therapy technique is safe and may be effective at staving off the worsening symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

25 Jun 2007

Gene therapy for Parkinson's disease is safe and some patients benefit

A novel gene therapy technique is safe and may be effective at staving off worsening symptoms of Parkinson's disease, according to the first scientific review of a dozen patients who have received the treatment over the last three years.

23 Jun 2007

Toronto at forefront of stem cell technology

A $20-million deal announced to license Canadian stem cell technology in the U.S. underscores the Toronto area's global leadership in stem cell research.

23 Jun 2007

New target for therapies for retinopathy

A protein long thought to be one of the body's supporting players has quietly been taking a lead role in healthy eyesight, a discovery that could rapidly lead to treatments for babies born before their eyes are finished growing, University of Florida and Harvard Medical School researchers have found.

19 Jun 2007

New area of stroke drug discovery for the 22nd century

A new therapy to re-activate silenced genes in patients who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases or stroke is being developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Cornell University.

17 Jun 2007