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Sutro, Pfizer enter multi-year collaboration for novel peptide-based therapeutics

Sutro Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel and biosuperior protein therapeutics with improved pharmaceutical properties, today announced that the company has entered into a multi-year collaboration with Pfizer for the research, development and commercialization of novel peptide-based therapeutics.

7 Jan 2011

Radiosurgery may bring improvement for patients with extremely severe -compulsive disorder

For patients with extremely severe -compulsive disorder (OCD), a procedure called radiosurgery may bring improvement when other treatments have failed, according to a study in the January issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

7 Jan 2011

Aratana closes $20 million Series A financing

Aratana Therapeutics, a newly-formed company focused on the development of innovative therapies for the animal health industry, today announced that it has closed a $20 million Series A financing led by MPM Capital and Avalon Ventures.

7 Jan 2011

Critical Diagnostics' high sensitivity Presage ST2 Assay receives CE Mark approval

Critical Diagnostics announced today that it has received CE (Conformité Européenne) Mark for its high sensitivity Presage ST2 Assay and is commencing commercialization in Europe. The product is indicated for use as an aid in risk stratification of patients with heart failure or acute coronary syndrome. This regulatory milestone marks the first time that an assay has become commercially available for the clinical measurement of the biomarker soluble ST2.

7 Jan 2011

MMRF awards $3 million under 2010 Biotech Investment Awards program

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) today announced that it has awarded $1 million to each of three Boston-area biotech companies through its 2010 Biotech Investment Awards program: Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Epizyme, Inc. and Karyopharm Therapeutics, Inc. Since the inception of this MMRF program in 2006, $11 million has been committed to 11 biotech companies in multi-year, results-driven funding for the development of innovative treatments for patients with multiple myeloma.

7 Jan 2011

Low incentive fails to 'switch off' brain regions involved in mind-wandering among ADHD children

Brain scans of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have shown for the first time why people affected by the condition sometimes have difficulty in concentrating. The study, by experts at The University of Nottingham, may explain why parents often say that their child can maintain concentration when they are doing something that interests them, but struggles with boring tasks.

7 Jan 2011

Research roundup: Accountable Care Organizations; Electronic health records; Medicaid and deficit reductions

Health Affairs: Accountable Care Organizations: Making Them Work - The January issue of the journal features several articles examining initiatives underway that could help form ACOs, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts' "Alternative Quality Contract,"a modified global payment model in which annual payments to medical groups are linked to a per member per month budget.

7 Jan 2011

Amorfix's AD diagnostic assay detects aggregated beta amyloid in spinal fluid

Amorfix Life Sciences, a product development company focused on diagnostics and therapeutics for misfolded protein diseases, today announced preliminary results indicating that their human Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnostic assay can detect a signal from aggregated beta amyloid in the spinal fluid (CSF) from AD patients.

7 Jan 2011

Roundup: Calif. and health reform; Conn. mental health parity; Insurance premium increases in Iowa, Fla.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield's proposed 11 percent health insurance premium increase is excessive, two experts have concluded. The company, which insures three-quarters of Iowans who buy their own policies, already raised premiums on those plans an average of 18 percent last spring. Wellmark sparked outcries when it announced in November that it wants to raise those rates again in order to keep up with rising prices and increased use of medical care (Leys, 1/7).

7 Jan 2011

GOP governors seek leeway to cut Medicaid rolls, The Wall Street Journal reports

Republican governors are pressing the Obama administration to make it easier for states to cut Medicaid enrollment, setting up a fight over one of states' costliest programs (Adamy, 1/7).

7 Jan 2011

Sucampo, Takeda initiate dosing in third lubiprostone phase 3 trial for opioid-induced bowel dysfunction

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. today announced the dosing of the first patient in the third phase 3 clinical trial of lubiprostone for the treatment of opioid-induced bowel dysfunction (OBD) in subjects with chronic, non-cancer pain, excluding those taking methadone. The primary endpoint is an overall responder rate based on the change from baseline in the reported frequency of spontaneous bowel movements (SBMs).

7 Jan 2011

New poll finds Americans split on repeal; Divide on Capitol Hill deepens

A new Gallup Poll found that public opinion is "closely divided" over whether Congress should vote to undo the health law. And on Capitol Hill, the divide is deep and entrenched, closely tracking with political loyalties. Even as GOP leaders point to the push to stop the health law as a way to "send a signal" to the American people, Senate Dems are plotting actions of their own.

7 Jan 2011

CBO analysis estimates health overhaul repeal price tag to be $230 billion

With the CBO findings, GOP efforts to undo the health law and claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility took a hit. Democrats immediately pounced on the cost estimate as new ammunition in an ongoing battle. But Republican leaders dismissed the document, saying it is a "job-killing" measure that would add to the nation's debt and instead pointed to a report of their own.

7 Jan 2011

California insurance watchdog asks insurer to delay rate hike

California's top insurance watchdog is asking one of his state's biggest health insurers to delay a planned rate increase for nearly 200,000 policyholders. For some, the rate hike by Blue Shield of California would be as high as 59%. It would be the third hike since last fall. Blue Shield says the increases are not related to health care overhaul (1/7).

7 Jan 2011

BIND Biosciences commences BIND-014 Phase 1 clinical trial in cancer

BIND Biosciences announced today that it has initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial to assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile of BIND-014 in cancer patients. BIND-014, the first product candidate to enter clinical evaluation from BIND's broad proprietary Medicinal Nanoengineering platform, is a targeted polymeric nanoparticle containing the cytotoxic agent, docetaxel.

7 Jan 2011

Fact-checking claims, questions in the continuing overhaul debate

News outlets review some of the health law's policy specifics and ask questions about specific components, such as how the law's prevention fund is faring.

7 Jan 2011

Today's Opinions: Brooks, Reich, Fund, Cook on repeal; End-of-life care controversy continues

The health care reform law was signed 10 months ago, and what's striking now is how vulnerable it looks. Several threats have emerged — some of them scarcely discussed before passage — that together or alone could seriously endanger the new system. ... After the trauma of the last two years, many people wish the issue would go away. But it's not going away, especially since costs will continue to rise. (David Brooks, 1/6).

7 Jan 2011

Some Democrats wrestle with reform positions, others file amendments on repeal to force GOP votes against popular consumer protections

As the House vote on repealing the health law looms in the near future, some Democrats are contemplating their votes in the context of stiff election pressure or expressing their doubts about the measure's individual mandate. Meanwhile, in a strategic measure, other Democrats are pursuing amendments to the GOP repeal bill that would force up-or-down votes on the health care law's popular consumer provisions.

7 Jan 2011

Single cellular crisis shatters chromosomes in cancer causation

Remarkable new research overthrows the conventional view that cancer always develops in a steady, stepwise progression. It shows that in some cancers, the genome can be shattered into hundreds of fragments in a single cellular catastrophe, wreaking mutation on a massive scale.

7 Jan 2011

First Edition: January 16, 2011

Today's headlines include news about public opinion regarding the GOP health law repeal effort.

7 Jan 2011

Research News and Research

Sutro, Pfizer enter multi-year collaboration for novel peptide-based therapeutics

Radiosurgery may bring improvement for patients with extremely severe -compulsive disorder

Aratana closes $20 million Series A financing

Critical Diagnostics' high sensitivity Presage ST2 Assay receives CE Mark approval

MMRF awards $3 million under 2010 Biotech Investment Awards program

Low incentive fails to 'switch off' brain regions involved in mind-wandering among ADHD children

Research roundup: Accountable Care Organizations; Electronic health records; Medicaid and deficit reductions

Amorfix's AD diagnostic assay detects aggregated beta amyloid in spinal fluid

Roundup: Calif. and health reform; Conn. mental health parity; Insurance premium increases in Iowa, Fla.

GOP governors seek leeway to cut Medicaid rolls, The Wall Street Journal reports

Sucampo, Takeda initiate dosing in third lubiprostone phase 3 trial for opioid-induced bowel dysfunction

New poll finds Americans split on repeal; Divide on Capitol Hill deepens

CBO analysis estimates health overhaul repeal price tag to be $230 billion

California insurance watchdog asks insurer to delay rate hike

BIND Biosciences commences BIND-014 Phase 1 clinical trial in cancer

Fact-checking claims, questions in the continuing overhaul debate

Today's Opinions: Brooks, Reich, Fund, Cook on repeal; End-of-life care controversy continues

Some Democrats wrestle with reform positions, others file amendments on repeal to force GOP votes against popular consumer protections

Single cellular crisis shatters chromosomes in cancer causation

First Edition: January 16, 2011

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