Drugs News and Research

RSS

Future cancer care, can we afford it?

When a cancer patient and his or her doctor discuss the value of a treatment option, the conversation usually centers on a consideration of the treatment's medical benefits versus its possible side effects for the patient. Increasingly, however, as the already high costs of cancer care continue to rise, a full view of the patient's welfare must also take into account the economic impact of the treatment on the patient and his or her family.

26 May 2009

Diabetes drug pioglitazone shows potential against multiple sclerosis

A drug currently FDA-approved for use in diabetes shows some protective effects in the brains of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report in a study currently available online in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.

26 May 2009

Discovery of entirely new mechanism that promotes blood clot formation

A Monash-led research team has discovered an entirely new mechanism that promotes blood clot formation - a major breakthrough that will impact on treatment and prevention of heart disease and stroke.

26 May 2009

Global Health Council names Jeffrey Sturchio as next leader

Jeffrey L. Sturchio, a longtime leader at Merck & Co. whose quiet diplomacy helped build programs treating more than 100,000 AIDS patients in Botswana as well as protecting millions of Africans from river blindness, has been named President and CEO of the Global Health Council, the Council's board of directors announced today.

26 May 2009

Discovery of faulty genes could reveal risk of Paget's disease

The discovery of faulty genes by Edinburgh researchers could help people with Paget's disease, a painful bone condition. Dr Omar Albagha has found three genes associated with the disease which, if detected early enough in people, could hasten diagnosis and treatment.

26 May 2009

Perceived barriers to treatment for adolescent depression

Although teen depression poses a widespread problem for which proven treatments exist, few depressed teens receive any care.

26 May 2009

Penn study shows ‘in-store’ clinics more apt to be based in higher-income neighborhoods

Since 2000, nearly 1,000 "retail clinics" -- offering routine care like sports physicals and immunizations and treatment for minor illnesses like strep throat -- have opened their doors inside pharmacies and grocery stores across the United States. Retail chain operators proposed that the new clinics would improve access to medical care among uninsured or underserved populations.

25 May 2009

Statins may help prevent stroke recurrence

People who take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins after a stroke may be less likely to have another stroke later, according to research published in the May 26, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

25 May 2009

Impaired ability to monitor behavior, emotions may underlie vulnerability to drugs; suggests new targets for treatment

Parts of the brain involved in monitoring behaviors and emotions show different levels of activity in cocaine users relative to non-drug users, even when both groups perform equally well on a psychological test.

25 May 2009

Extreme caffeinated soft drink diet leaves woman with serious health issues

Reports in the media of a New Zealand woman's extreme Red Bull diet where her weight plummeted from 105kg to 60kg by drinking 10 to 14 cans of the 'energy' drink each day say she has been left with serious health issues.

24 May 2009

California’s AIDS funding cuts would be ‘catastrophic,’ says AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has criticized California state officials for planning draconian budget cuts that will jeopardize the public health by eliminating all funding for AIDS care and treatment from the state’s General Fund.

24 May 2009

Scientists map sequence mutations of the 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus

In just two weeks from the time the first patient virus samples were made available, Singapore scientists report an evolutionary analysis of a critical protein produced by the 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus strain.

22 May 2009

Scientists pinpoint molecular cause of Alzheimer's disease

A discovery made by researchers at McGill University and the affiliated Lady Davis Research Institute for Medical Research at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital offers new hope for the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

22 May 2009

GM bankruptcy plan would use stock worth 39% of firm to fund half of VEBA obligation

General Motors and United Auto Workers on Thursday agreed to a tentative deal that would allow the automaker to use company stock to fund half of its obligation to a retiree health care fund, the Washington Post reports (Cho et al., Washington Post, 5/22).

22 May 2009

Vaginal ring could protect against HIV

A researcher with Weill Cornell Medical College has developed a vaginal ring that releases microbicides and could prevent HIV and unplanned pregnancies, ANI/Times of India reports.

22 May 2009

Scientists shed new light on why pancreatic cancer drugs can fail

Cancer Research UK scientists led an international team of investigators who have discovered a new mechanism that may explain why pancreatic cancer patients are often resistant to a common chemotherapy treatment called gemcitabine, according to a study published in Science.

22 May 2009

62nd World Health Assembly closes with resolutions on public health

The 62nd World Health Assembly, which brought together health ministers and senior health officials from WHO's Member States, closed today with the adoption of resolutions on a variety of global health issues including primary health care, the prevention and control of multidrug- resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, public health, innovation and intellectual property and pandemic influenza preparedness. The Health Assembly also passed the Programme Budget for 2010 -2011.

22 May 2009

AIDS treatment activists push UNAIDS and WHO to meet commitments to reduce HIV in women and newborns

In a dramatic meeting today at the UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva, members of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) and AIDS-Free World met with the leaders and approximately 100 staff members of UNAIDS and WHO to present ITPC's latest Missing the Target report, Failing Women, Failing Children: HIV, Vertical Transmission and Women's Health, which identifies the failure of the international community in preventing vertical transmission (also known as prevention of mother-to-child transmission or PMTCT).

22 May 2009

Viral Genetics issued patent for novel cancer therapies

Biotechnology firm Viral Genetics, Inc. has been issued a patent for novel cancer therapies. The patent protects cancer drugs that have been tested in pre-clinical research studies in mice. Issued on March 31, 2009, the U.S. Patent Number is: 7,510,710. Additional patents directed at generic classes of the drugs are still pending.

22 May 2009

Cancer drugs erlotinib and gefitinib might treat alcoholism

A class of drugs already approved as cancer treatments might also help to beat alcohol addiction. That's the conclusion of a discovery in flies of a gene, dubbed happyhour, that has an important and previously unknown role in controlling the insects' response to alcohol.

22 May 2009