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Health Canada approves Genzyme's Lemtrada for adults with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Genzyme, a Sanofi company, announced today that Health Canada has approved Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) for the management of adult patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, with active disease defined by clinical and imaging features, who have had an inadequate response to interferon beta or other disease-modifying therapies.

13 Dec 2013

Artificial sweetener sucralose has biological effects

The artificial sweetener sucralose is a biologically active compound according to an extensive review published by Taylor & Francis in the recent issue of Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B: Critical Reviews. "Sucralose, A Synthetic Organochlorine Sweetener: Overview Of Biological Issues" authored by Susan S. Schiffman, PhD, an internationally known sweetener researcher and Kristina I. Rother, MD, MHSc, of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), summarizes the biological properties of sucralose based on hundreds of archival, peer-reviewed scientific journal publications.

13 Dec 2013

Anastrozole drug reduces breast cancer in high risk post-menopausal women

Taking the breast cancer drug anastrozole for five years reduced the chances of post-menopausal women at high risk of breast cancer developing the disease by 53% compared with women who took a placebo, according to a study published in the Lancet today.

13 Dec 2013

New test may help decrease risk of suicidality in patients treated with antidepressants

The new test, based on research carried out at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, should help doctors to decrease the risk of suicidality in patients treated with antidepressants who show certain gene markers. Sundance is completing a new round of funding to extend the initial validation results reported by the Institute. The company plans to launch the test immediately as a laboratory developed test. In addition, clinical studies in support of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration submission for market clearance, CE marking and reimbursement will be initiated. Sundance expects to submit its application to the agencies within 18 months.

13 Dec 2013

Dasatinib+letrozole improves survival for women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer

Adding the drug dasatinib to a standard antihormone therapy, letrozole, doubled the time before disease progressed for women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, according to results of a phase II clinical trial presented here at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 10-14.

13 Dec 2013

Breast cancer survivors taking AIs may experience reduction in joint pain on exercising

Breast cancer survivors taking aromatase inhibitors (AIs) such as anastrozole, letrozole, and exemestane experienced a reduction in joint pain if they exercised while on treatment, according to results presented here at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 10-14.

13 Dec 2013

Study: Antisense drugs show activity in wide range of tissues and organs

Antisense therapeutics, a class of drugs comprised of short nucleic acid sequences, can target a dysfunctional gene and silence its activity. A new study has shown that antisense drugs delivered systemically show activity in a wide range of tissues and organs, supporting their broad therapeutic potential in many disease indications, as described in an article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

13 Dec 2013

Vaccines for whooping cough contain 3 to 5 protective antigens

Vaccines for whooping cough contain three to five protective antigens, the presence of which are critical to the vaccine's effectiveness. But one of the antigens, pertactin, which had been present in almost all isolates of Bordetella pertussis in the US as late as 2010, is now absent from more than half of them, according to a paper published ahead of print in Clinical and Vaccine Immunology.

13 Dec 2013

Drugs to treat type 2 diabetes may have different effects on hearts of men and women

Widely used treatments for type 2 diabetes have different effects on the hearts of men and women, even as the drugs control blood sugar equally well in both sexes, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

13 Dec 2013

Anastrozole drug: An effective new option for breast cancer prevention for postmenopausal women

Breast cancer incidence among postmenopausal women at high risk for developing the disease was significantly reduced by the antihormone therapy anastrozole, indicating that the drug may be an effective new option for breast cancer prevention for this group of women, according to initial results of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial presented here at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 10-14. The study is being simultaneously published in the The Lancet.

13 Dec 2013

Retrophin signs agreement with Novartis for exclusive U.S. license for Syntocinon Nasal Spray

Retrophin, Inc. today announced that it has signed an agreement with Novartis Pharma AG for an exclusive U.S. license for Syntocinon Nasal Spray, the intranasal formulation of a synthetic version of the naturally occurring peptide hormone oxytocin, for an upfront payment of $5.0 million plus milestone payments and royalties.

12 Dec 2013

Market research report on global and China insulin industry

As the third largest human health disease following neoplastic disease, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, the number of diabetic patients has continued growing from 246 million in 2007 to 382 million in 2013 at a compound annual growth rate of 7.6%.

12 Dec 2013

Drug labeling often lacks infant-specific information, shows study

Federal legislation encouraging the study of drugs in pediatric patients has resulted in very few labeling changes that include new infant information, according to a study by Matthew M. Laughon, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues.

12 Dec 2013

Study: Taxol and Herceptin highly effective for lower-risk breast cancer patients

A remarkable 98.7 percent of certain lower-risk breast cancer patients were cancer free for at least three years after taking a combination of the drugs Herceptin and Taxol, a study has found.

12 Dec 2013

New Journal presents techniques for finding new uses for approved drugs

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is pleased to announce Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and Repositioning, a dynamic new peer-reviewed journal that will present techniques and tools for finding new uses for approved drugs—particularly for disorders where no animal model, physiologic abnormality, biochemical pathway, or molecular target has been identified.

12 Dec 2013

GSK's FluLaval Quadrivalent vaccine effective in reducing flu cases in children

GlaxoSmithKline plc announced today that a peer-reviewed study issued online by the New England Journal of Medicine has reported that GSK's FluLaval® Quadrivalent reduced flu cases among children ages 3-8 by 55.4% overall and lowered the risk of developing moderate-to-serious flu illness by 73.1%.

12 Dec 2013

ScinoPharm constructs Changshu plant in China

ScinoPharm today announced that the company has completed construction of its Changshu plant on a 16-acre (6.5-hectare) site.

12 Dec 2013

HCV antiviral therapy also improves diabetes outcomes

Researchers from Taiwan reveal that antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus improves kidney and cardiovascular outcomes for patients with diabetes. Results of the study published in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, show that incidences of kidney disease, stroke, and heart attack were lower in patients treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin compared to HCV patients not treated with antivirals or diabetic patients not infected with the virus.

12 Dec 2013

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes may be good biomarker of response to trastuzumab in breast cancer

Women with HER2-positive breast cancer who had the highest levels of immune cells in their tumors gained the most benefit from presurgery treatment with chemotherapy and trastuzumab, according to results presented here at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 10-14.

12 Dec 2013

Johns Hopkins researchers use lung cancer drug to shrink chordoma in mice

Johns Hopkins researchers say that a drug approved to treat lung cancer substantially shrank tumors in mice that were caused by a rare form of bone cancer called chordoma.

12 Dec 2013

Pharmaceutical News

Health Canada approves Genzyme's Lemtrada for adults with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Artificial sweetener sucralose has biological effects

Anastrozole drug reduces breast cancer in high risk post-menopausal women

New test may help decrease risk of suicidality in patients treated with antidepressants

Dasatinib+letrozole improves survival for women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer

Breast cancer survivors taking AIs may experience reduction in joint pain on exercising

Study: Antisense drugs show activity in wide range of tissues and organs

Vaccines for whooping cough contain 3 to 5 protective antigens

Drugs to treat type 2 diabetes may have different effects on hearts of men and women

Anastrozole drug: An effective new option for breast cancer prevention for postmenopausal women

Retrophin signs agreement with Novartis for exclusive U.S. license for Syntocinon Nasal Spray

Market research report on global and China insulin industry

Drug labeling often lacks infant-specific information, shows study

Study: Taxol and Herceptin highly effective for lower-risk breast cancer patients

New Journal presents techniques for finding new uses for approved drugs

GSK's FluLaval Quadrivalent vaccine effective in reducing flu cases in children

ScinoPharm constructs Changshu plant in China

HCV antiviral therapy also improves diabetes outcomes

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes may be good biomarker of response to trastuzumab in breast cancer

Johns Hopkins researchers use lung cancer drug to shrink chordoma in mice

Advancing brain microphysiological systems (bMPS)

PhD researcher at LifeArc

Unveiling Hidden Potential: Organoids for Disease Modeling in Neuroscience Research

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