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American Lung Association launches new smoking cessation campaign

The American Lung Association is launching a new smoking cessation campaign, "Quitter in You," designed to highlight the need to change the way Americans look at quitting.

3 Oct 2009

70% of Americans underestimate the seriousness of SCA

More than 250,000 deaths occur each year as a result of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). In fact, SCA claims one life every two minutes, taking more lives each year than breast cancer, lung cancer or AIDS. Yet, according to a recent survey issued by the Heart Rhythm Society, more than 70 percent of Americans not only underestimate the seriousness of SCA, but also believe SCA is a type of heart attack.

3 Oct 2009

Quest PharmaTech acquires immunotherapeutic antibody products from Paladin Labs

Quest PharmaTech Inc. ("Quest" or the "Company"), a pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing products for the treatment of cancer, today announced that it has acquired a pipeline of late-stage immunotherapy product candidates from Paladin Labs Inc. ("Paladin").

3 Oct 2009

Self-monitoring of blood glucose helps patients with diabetes to manage their disease better

Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) enables those with diabetes to modify their behavior, adjust their medicine and understand their disease to better manage it, according to a recent study, published by SAGE in The Diabetes Educator. The research looked at "paired testing," a self-monitored testing both before and after specific events, to evaluate whether it could assist the patient in making better health and food choice decisions over time.

3 Oct 2009

Sagent announces launch of vinorelbine injection

Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced that it has launched vinorelbine injection, USP, an anti-mitotic chemotherapy drug. According to IMS, 2008 sales of vinorelbine injection, USP in the United States approximated $17 million. Sagent will begin marketing and shipping vinorelbine injection immediately.

3 Oct 2009

Opening Minds launched to reduce stigma of mental illness

Opening Minds, the largest systematic effort in Canadian history to reduce the stigma of mental illness, was launched today by the Honourable Michael Kirby, Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. "More than seven million Canadians will experience a mental health problem in 2009. Many of these people will not seek help because of the stigma surrounding mental illness. In fact, people who live with mental illness tell us that the stigma is often worse than the disease itself", says Kirby.

3 Oct 2009

MABIDA encourages parents and caregivers to understand warning signs for dyslexia

October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month, and the Massachusetts Branch of the International Dyslexia Association (MABIDA) is encouraging parents and caregivers to understand the warning signs for dyslexia as well as the facts and the myths about this learning disability. Most importantly, MABIDA is helping to ensure that every child affected by dyslexia receives the support necessary to overcome their learning disability and develop strong reading skills.

3 Oct 2009

Data for end-stage kidney disease in the United States available online

Incidence and prevalence data for end-stage kidney disease in the United States will be available online from the U.S. Renal Data System a year earlier than usual, announces the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. In addition, the data will be updated online every three months and will show quarterly counts of patients at www.usrds.org/qtr/qrt_report_table_new.html.

3 Oct 2009

Teens with chronic disease often have expensive, uncertain coverage

ABC News profiles teens living with chronic diseases, and examines their insurance coverage and the cost of such care. The article notes: "Chronic diseases affect 1 in 10 Americans and are the leading cause of disability, accounting for 70 percent of all deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are also expensive."

3 Oct 2009

IRSF awards $2M for research into a cure for Rett syndrome

The International Rett Syndrome Foundation (IRSF) announced today that it is awarding grants totaling $2 million to support 18 innovative research projects in 2009. Each project will explore bold new ideas that have the potential to drive the field forward and speed the translation of research into treatments and a cure for Rett syndrome.

3 Oct 2009

Research study reveals primary chemotherapy benefits

Initial chemotherapy alone after surgery is just as successful as initial radiation therapy for patients from whom a very malignant brain tumor (anaplastic glioma) was removed. With this treatment, the patients survive on average > 30 months without a recurrence. A study conducted by the Neurooncology Working Group of the German Cancer Society led by researchers from Heidelberg and Z-rich showed that patients in primary therapy benefit to the same extent from chemotherapy alone as from radiation alone.

3 Oct 2009

Study finds link between allergic inflammation and nephropathy in men with type 2 diabetes

For men with type 2 diabetes, a cell type linked to allergic inflammation is closely linked to a key indicator of diabetic kidney disease (nephropathy), suggests a study in the November Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). "Allergy is a common disease that is increasing worldwide, so our findings may have important implications for diabetic nephropathy," comments Michiaki Fukui, MD (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan).

3 Oct 2009

Increase in omega-3 fatty acid levels can prevent strokes, according to research

Research led by Hernan A. Bazan, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Section of Vascular Surgery, at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has found that unstable carotid artery plaques - those in danger of rupturing and leading to a stroke - contain more inflammation and significantly less omega-3 fatty acids than asymptomatic plaques.

3 Oct 2009

Nutra Pharma manufactures first commercial batch of Cobroxin

Nutra Pharma Corp., a biotechnology company that is developing treatments for Adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN), HIV and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), has announced today that it has completed manufacturing the first commercial batch of Cobroxin and has successfully released it for final distribution.

3 Oct 2009

FDA grants Fast Track designation to Corthera's relaxin for treating acute heart failure

Corthera Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation to relaxin, the company's investigational drug for the treatment of acute heart failure (AHF). The Fast Track program facilitates the development and expedites the review of new drugs intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions and that demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs.

3 Oct 2009

Eye treatment reimbursement change could cost Medicare millions

A change in the reimbursement rate for the drug Avastin, used off-label to treat an eye illness in the elderly, could lead Medicare doctors to use a much costlier drug that would cost the system millions, The New York Times reports.

3 Oct 2009

Telik's announces positive results from Phase 1-2a TELCYTA-carboplatin-paclitaxel combination study

Telik, Inc. today announced the publication of the positive results from a Phase 1-2a multicenter, dose-ranging study of TELCYTA in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel as first-line therapy for patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a leading peer reviewed publication, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, October 2009; Vol. 4, No. 10.

3 Oct 2009

American Kidney Fund to host national gala to support kidney care community

In celebration of people who are living with kidney disease, as well as the individuals and corporations who are working to improve the lives of kidney patients, the American Kidney Fund will host its first national gala, The Hope Affair, at the Newseum on October 6.

3 Oct 2009

Dapagliflozin with metformin reduces glycosylated hemoglobin level and body weight

Results from a 24-week phase 3 clinical study demonstrated that the investigational drug dapagliflozin, added to metformin, demonstrated significant mean reductions in the primary endpoint, glycosylated hemoglobin level (HbA1c) and in the secondary endpoint, fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled with metformin alone, as compared to placebo plus metformin.

3 Oct 2009

ALL initiative three-year clinical observational study results published

A program that bundled two generic, low-cost drugs - a cholesterol-lowering statin and a blood pressure-lowering drug - and gave daily doses to 68,560 people with diabetes or heart disease for two years is estimated to have prevented 1,271 heart attacks and strokes in the first year following the study period, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the American Journal of Managed Care.

3 Oct 2009