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Amgen wins Scrip Best New Drug award for Prolia

Amgen is pleased to announce that it has won the Best New Drug award for Prolia™ (denosumab), a novel treatment approved in the United States (U.S.) for women with postmenopausal osteoporosis at high risk for fracture, at the 2010 Scrip Awards ceremony Nov. 4 in London. Named one of TIME's Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2009, Prolia is the first treatment specifically designed to target osteoclasts, the cells that break down bone.

8 Nov 2010

Chronic lower back pain may be linked to axial spondyloarthritis: Research

Chronic lower back pain may be linked to a recently defined form of inflammatory arthritis known as axial spondyloarthritis, according to research presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta.

8 Nov 2010

Medicaid pooled trusts keep seniors out of nursing homes

The New York Times reports on Medicaid pooled trusts: "[T]here is a little-known way for some people in certain states to receive home care through Medicaid, without requiring them to impoverish themselves first. Here's how it works: a federal law established in 1993 allows disabled people to put their monthly income or assets — above the amounts Medicaid allows them to keep — into a special type of pooled trust.

8 Nov 2010

Tomophase to commercialize OCT Imaging System for pulmonary applications with QTDP award

Tomophase Corporation, a leading developer of minimally invasive optical coherence tomography (OCT) tissue imaging devices, announced that it has received an award from the Departments of the Treasury and Health and Human Services for the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP.)

8 Nov 2010

Home health, other Medicare providers face pay cuts

Home health providers face Medicare payment cuts next year. Gentiva Health Services and Amedisys are among the providers of at-home health care to receive lower Medicare payments next year under U.S. government changes to the program.

8 Nov 2010

GeoVax receives $244,500 grant under QTDP program for HIV/AIDS vaccine development

GeoVax Labs, Inc., an Atlanta-based, biopharmaceutical firm dedicated to developing vaccines that prevent and fight Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections, today announced that it has been awarded a grant of $244,500 related to its HIV/AIDS vaccine development activities under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project program.

8 Nov 2010

Prolonged separation from mother increases risk of breast cancer in young mice

Young mice that experienced the psychosocial stress of prolonged separation from their mothers had a higher incidence and faster onset of breast tumors compared with young mice who did not experience this stressful life event. Specifically, neonatal mice separated from their mothers for a prolonged period of time developed mammary tumors twice as fast as mice that experienced short or no maternal separation.

8 Nov 2010

Health care industries have mixed reaction to health reform

The Wall Street Journal: While many Republican campaigns this season focused on repeal of the federal health care overhaul, "even with the House changing hands, health insurers, drug companies and hospitals said they were planning as if the law will stick." However, health-care companies "say that the election results offer new opportunities to influence the way the law is implemented.

8 Nov 2010

Clinical Data receives $500,000 grants under QTDP program

Clinical Data, Inc. today announced that the Company has received two grants totaling nearly $500,000 under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project.

8 Nov 2010

FDA approves Cymbalta for treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Cymbalta (duloxetine hydrochloride) to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain, including discomfort from osteoarthritis and chronic lower back pain. Cymbalta was first used to treat major depressive disorder in 2004.

8 Nov 2010

Alder to present data of ALD518 two clinical studies for rheumatoid arthritis at American College Meeting

Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc. today announced that data from two clinical studies of its ALD518 investigational antibody therapeutic will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Atlanta.

8 Nov 2010

Gout and hyperuricemia continue to rise in the U.S.

Gout rates and related cases of hyperuricema have increased over the past two decades, according to research presented at the Nov 2010, American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta.

8 Nov 2010

'New framework' needed to reduce slum expansion, new UN-HABITAT head says in speech outlining priorities

Joan Clos, the newly elected executive director of the U.N. Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), on Tuesday urged the international community to focus on improving the lives of slum dwellers worldwide and take steps to reduce the expansion of slum areas, Xinhua/People's Daily Online reports.

8 Nov 2010

FDA reviews GSK's response to Complete Response letter for Horizant

GlaxoSmithKline and XenoPort, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review GSK's response to FDA's Complete Response letter for Horizant (gabapentin enacarbil) Extended-Release Tablets. Horizant is under review for the treatment of moderate-to-severe primary Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS).

8 Nov 2010

Leaders discuss best practices, challenges for detecting counterfeit medications

During the opening of the 10th annual meeting of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) in Accra, Ghana, the country's "Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday called on member countries of the society to institute effective measures that would help detect fake and counterfeit drugs," Ghana News Agency reports.

8 Nov 2010

AHRQ grants $34 million to prevent healthcare-associated infections

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced the award of $34 million for projects focused on preventing one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States - healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). This new funding will help improve the quality of care delivered to patients and expand the fight against HAIs in hospitals, ambulatory care settings, end-stage renal disease facilities and long-term care facilities.

8 Nov 2010

How much did health care votes cause democratic defeats?

In the end, it may have mattered less whether vulnerable Democratic incumbents voted for or against the health care law than that they simply had a D by their names, The New York Times reports.

8 Nov 2010

Agios receives two grants under QTDP program to develop novel cancer metabolism therapies

Agios Pharmaceuticals, the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the rapidly emerging field of cancer metabolism, today announced it has received two grants totaling more than $488,000 from the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) Program.

8 Nov 2010

Report: FDA conflict-of-interest rules too restrictive

The conflict-of-interest policies in the medical profession are coming under fire as too stringent and as impeding medical progress, a claim the Food and Drug Administration dismisses as a misunderstanding of its rules.

8 Nov 2010

Researchers take first step towards understanding of rare skin cancer

Leeds-based scientists, funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research headquartered in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, plan to introduce the genetic material of a virus into normal human skin cells to produce skin cells that have features of Merkel Cell Carcinoma cancers.

8 Nov 2010