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No decision on Office of Women's Health Funding, FDA Commissioner Von Eschenbach says

FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach on Wednesday at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing said he has not made a decision on fiscal year 2007 funding for the agency's Office of Women's Health, Reuters reports.

4 Mar 2007

U.S. Army fires Commander of Walter Reed over concerns about leadership abilities

Maj. Gen. George Weightman was fired as commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center because the Army said it had lost confidence in his leadership abilities, the Washington Post reports.

4 Mar 2007

Former FDA commissioner Lester Crawford gets three years probation and $90,000 fine

U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson on Tuesday sentenced former FDA commissioner Lester Crawford to three years of supervised probation and ordered him to pay fines of about $90,000 for false reporting and conflicts of interest related to ownership of stocks in companies regulated by the agency, the AP/Washington Times reports.

1 Mar 2007

Medical workers sentenced to death in Libyan HIV infection case plead not guilty in slander hearing

The five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for allegedly intentionally infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV on Sunday pleaded not guilty to claims that they slandered a police officer and a doctor by accusing them of torture, Reuters/Independent Online reports.

28 Feb 2007

Obese eight year old to stay with mother

The grossly overweight eight year old in Britain who was facing being taken into care, will be allowed to remain with his family.

28 Feb 2007

Stanford student is visionary behind global fight againts blindness

Six years ago, as a 19-year-old college sophomore, Jennifer Staple decided to battle preventable blindness so she started the nonprofit "Unite for Sight" with a staff of one: herself.

27 Feb 2007

Medics in Libyan HIV sham now accused of slander

In the latest development in the cases of the foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya for supposedly deliberately infecting children at a hospital with HIV, the six are now being subjected to a slander trial.

26 Feb 2007

Genetically caused deafness may be reversible by compensating for a missing protein

Emory University researchers have found that in mice, increasing the amount of the protein connexin26 in the ear's cochlea compensates for an absence of another protein, connexin30.

26 Feb 2007

State actions on human papillomavirus vaccine proposals

The following highlights recent news of state actions on human papillomavirus vaccine proposals. Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline's HPV vaccine Cervarix in clinical trials have been shown to be 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases.

25 Feb 2007

FDA wants clear warnings on ADHD drugs

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has ordered drugmakers to alert patients to the possible cardiovascular and psychiatric risks attached to drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

22 Feb 2007

Some health experts concerned proponents of mandatory HPV vaccination are acting too soon

Some public health experts recently have expressed concern that proponents of human papillomavirus vaccination legislation -- including Merck, producer of the HPV vaccine Gardasil -- have acted "far too fast" and are "potentially undermining eventual prospects for the broadest possible immunization," the New York Times reports .

22 Feb 2007

Experimental vector vaccine reduces stillbirths from cytomegalovirus

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that reduces stillbirths among rodents born to mothers infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) - a common virus that can also cause mental retardation and hearing loss in newborn children who were infected in early fetal life.

21 Feb 2007

Synergetics provides update on Iridex patent case

Synergetics USA, Inc. today announced updates to its shareholders on the status of the pending Iridex patent infringement lawsuit.

21 Feb 2007

Newborns with respiratory distress should be evaluated for primary ciliary dyskinesia

Reviewing published reports, Ferkol and Margaret Leigh, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), found that neonatal respiratory distress was a common clinical symptom of PCD, a chronic airway disease that affects about 1 in 15,000 children.

20 Feb 2007

Legislation introduced that would give FDA authority to approve generic versions of biotechnology drugs

Lawmakers in the House and Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill that would allow FDA to approve generic versions of biotechnology medications, USA Today reports.

19 Feb 2007

Senate committee on aging discusses Medicare budget cuts

At a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on Thursday, ranking member Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) expressed concern about proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid by the Bush administration, CongressDaily reports.

19 Feb 2007

Benefits of two cochlear implants in deaf children

Nature has outfitted us with a pair of ears for good reason: having two ears enhances hearing. University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are now examining whether this is also true for the growing numbers of deaf children who've received not one, but two, cochlear implants to help them hear

13 Feb 2007