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Digna Biotech receives FDA Orphan Drug status for cardiotrophin-1 to treat ALF

Digna Biotech, a Spanish biotechnological company, announces that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) Orphan Drug status for use in the treatment of acute liver failure.

22 Sep 2011

NEJM publishes Boehringer Ingelheim's BIBF 1120 phase II trial on IPF

Boehringer Ingelheim's investigational tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) BIBF 1120 demonstrated a positive trend in reducing lung function decline in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), according to phase II clinical trial results published today online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

22 Sep 2011

U.N. calls for advancement on goal to save women and children; poorest countries, drug company contribute to fight

Speaking at a high-level meeting at U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while lauding the progress made under the Every Woman Every Child initiative since its launch one year ago, noted that millions of women and children "are still dying needless deaths and called for advancing the goal of saving 16 million lives by 2015," the U.N. News Centre reports.

22 Sep 2011

GAVI Alliance cited as “game changer” in international development aid

The heads of the US and UK governments’ aid programmes have recognised the GAVI Alliance as offering ”game changing” lessons in the fight against global poverty.

21 Sep 2011

U.N. set to announce expansion of 'Every Woman Every Child' program

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday is expected "to announce a significant expansion of the organization's ambitious global program to tackle infant and maternal mortality and boost access to reproductive health over coming years," the Financial Times reports.

21 Sep 2011

People should be concerned about flu every year

As temperatures begin to cool, coughing and sneezing inevitably follow. So begins flu season in the United States — and preventable deaths, says David Kimberlin, M.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham professor of pediatrics and president-elect of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

21 Sep 2011

Study examines link between gestational age at birth and mortality in young adulthood

In a study that included more than 600,000 individuals born in Sweden between 1973-1979, those born preterm had a higher risk of death during early childhood and young adulthood than persons born at term, according to a study in the September 21 issue of JAMA.

21 Sep 2011

HRPR before PCI procedures linked to increased risk of ischemic event in ACS patients

Among patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing a procedure such as angioplasty, those who received platelet function tests before receiving antithrombotic therapy to determine appropriate clopidogrel dosing and who had high residual platelet reactivity were at an increased risk of an ischemic event at short- and long-term follow-up of up to 2 years, according to a study in the September 21 issue of JAMA.

21 Sep 2011

Three reports evaluate global progress to meet MDGs 4 and 5

Three recent reports -- a one-year assessment released by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health of the WHO on Tuesday, an analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington published on Tuesday in the Lancet, and a Save the Children report released on Monday entitled "No Child out of Reach" -- examine the progress of the global campaign to save mothers and children under five in developing nations and evaluate whether Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, reducing child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 and maternal deaths by three-quarters over the same period, can be met.

21 Sep 2011

World leaders should commit to closing health care worker gap

Recent U.N. statistics showing a drop in child mortality are both good and bad, because the number of child deaths continues to drop, but "progress isn't reaching all families around the world, and it isn't reaching newborn babies as often as older children," Joy Lawn, director of Global Evidence and Policy for Save the Children's Saving Newborn Lives program, writes in a GlobalPost opinion piece.

21 Sep 2011

Genetic differences play a role in prostate cancer disparities

Genetic differences in prostate cells seem to be a root cause of the prostate cancer disparities between African-American men and white men, according to findings presented at the Fourth AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held here Sept. 18-21, 2011.

21 Sep 2011

Risk factors for variety of complications following spine surgery

In the last 20 years, due to diagnostic and surgical advances, more and more patients have become appropriate candidates for spine surgery, and the number of these procedures performed has risen significantly. While medical experts acknowledge the potential benefits of spine surgery, they also understand that complications can reduce the success in the short and long term.

21 Sep 2011

Financial and political commitments to improve health of women and children

In only one year, more than 100 countries, foundations, multilateral organizations, the UN, the private sector, and academic and professional associations have made unprecedented financial and political commitments to greatly improve the health of women and children.

21 Sep 2011

Women with prior infant death more likely to have subsequent stillbirth

Women whose first pregnancy ended in infant death are significantly more likely to have a subsequent stillbirth finds new research published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

21 Sep 2011

Beta-blocker drugs may improve survival time for melanoma patients

Beta-blocker drugs, commonly used to treat high blood pressure, may also play a major role in slowing the progression of certain serious cancers, based on a new study.

21 Sep 2011

U-M Professor to review data from three prominent studies on heart failure

Roughly 5 million people in the United States live with heart failure, a condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood around the body effectively. The causes and types of heart failure vary greatly, and treatment must be tailored to each patient. In some cases, doctors will prescribe a class of diuretic drugs called aldosterone antagonists.

20 Sep 2011

Autopsy study reveals earliest 1918 pandemic influenza cases

Examination of lung tissue and other autopsy material from 68 American soldiers who died of respiratory infections in 1918 has revealed that the influenza virus that eventually killed 50 million people worldwide was circulating in the United States at least four months before the 1918 influenza reached pandemic levels that fall.

20 Sep 2011

Introduction of free caesarean sections in Congo leads to increase in procedure

"A health policy shift that saw the introduction in May of free caesarean section operations in 35 hospitals across the Republic of Congo -- to curb the growing rate of maternal and infant mortality -- seems to have prompted a proliferation of such operations, according to health officials," IRIN reports.

20 Sep 2011

World Bank report examines gender equality, highlights mortality disparity between men and women

The World Bank's annual World Development Report, which was released on Sunday and this year "focuses on gender equality around the world, offers some stark facts about how women and girls fare in developing countries despite decades of progress," the Wall Street Journal reports (Reddy, 9/18). "The most glaring disparity is the rate at which girls and women die relative to men in developing countries, according to" the report, Reuters/AlertNet reports.

20 Sep 2011

ESC urges European heads of state to prevent chronic non-communicable diseases

The European Society of Cardiology, through the European Chronic Disease Alliance (ECDA), has urged European heads of state "to show leadership" and long-term commitment to the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases at today's "high level meeting" of the UN General Assembly in New York.

19 Sep 2011