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Health Canada accepts Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Canada's lurasidone NDS for review

Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., formerly Sepracor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that the New Drug Submission (NDS) for Lurasidone HCl, for the treatment of adult patients with schizophrenia has been accepted for review by Health Canada. The NDS was submitted to Health Canada in June 2011 and will receive a standard review.

24 Aug 2011

Research may help explain why live attenuated influenza vaccine elicits protection

New research from the Trudeau Institute may help to explain why live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), commonly known as FluMist, elicits protection.

24 Aug 2011

Daily exercise can work as well as second antidepressant drug

Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for as many as half of depressed patients whose condition have not been cured by a single antidepressant medication.

24 Aug 2011

Simvastatin may reduce spinal cord damage from ischemia/reperfusion injury

The cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin appears to reduce spinal cord injury caused by oxygen deprivation in experimental animals, according to a study in the September issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

24 Aug 2011

Only 20.6% of Medicaid-covered Ohio youths complete full six month antidepressant treatment

About half of Medicaid-covered children and adolescents in Ohio who are in treatment for depression complete their first three months of prescribed antidepressants, and only one-fifth complete the recommended minimum six-month course of drugs to treat depression, new research suggests.

24 Aug 2011

Trophos awarded US patent covering use of novel cardioprotective compound

Trophos SA a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing innovative therapeutics from discovery to clinical validation for indications with under-served needs in neurology and cardiology, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted a patent for the use of their novel mitochondrial pore modulator, TRO40303, for cytoprotection. The patent provides coverage for the use of Trophos’ TRO40303 to reduce the cardiac reperfusion injury that contributes significantly to the morbidity and mortality seen after a heart attack (myocardial infarction - MI).

23 Aug 2011

Seattle genetics new blood cancer drug Adcetris comes with a hefty price tag

Seattle Genetics Inc's new blood cancer drug Adcetris is will come with a price tag of $100,000 for a course of treatment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday gave its nod to Adcetris, the first drug specifically indicated for anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) and the first one approved for Hodgkin's lymphoma since 1977.

23 Aug 2011

Kerr, Family Health Network partner to reduce medication non-adherence

Family Health Network is pleased to announce its participation in a program in partnership with Kerr Health, a subsidiary of the renowned regional pharmacy chain, Kerr Drug. Kerr Health will deploy Family Health Network's Connected for Life(SM) platform to an initial group of patients who require frequent interaction with a pharmacist to assist them with medication therapy management.

23 Aug 2011

Prescription drug shortages forcing docs, pharmacists to scramble

Record shortages of prescription drugs in the United States are forcing pharmacists and doctors to scramble to find medications for their patients, suitable alternatives or to delay potentially lifesaving treatments.

23 Aug 2011

Radium-223 chloride granted FDA Fast Track designation for treatment of CRPC

Algeta ASA, a company focused on the development of novel targeted cancer therapeutics, today announced that radium-223 chloride has been granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of castration-resistant (hormone refractory) prostate cancer in patients with bone metastases.

23 Aug 2011

Research into TB medication may shorten treatment regimen

Research of the common tuberculosis (TB) drug pyrazinamide, which is used in combination with other medications to treat the disease in a six-month regimen, "has now revealed that the drug does kill the latent form of the microbe, which does not cause observable symptoms," VOA News reports.

23 Aug 2011

Santarus, Depomed enter new commercialization agreement for GLUMETZA

Santarus, Inc. and Depomed, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a new commercialization agreement for GLUMETZA (metformin hydrochloride extended release tablets) under which Santarus will assume broad commercial, manufacturing and regulatory responsibilities to replace a promotion agreement that the companies entered into in July 2008.

23 Aug 2011

CTI responds to EMA's Day 120 letter for pixantrone MAA

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that it has submitted its response to the Day 120 List of Outstanding Issues to the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in regards to CTI's Marketing Authorization Application for pixantrone to treat relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

23 Aug 2011

New report on the immunomodulators market outlook to 2016

TNF inhibitors indicated for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease formed the largest share of the market, according to a new report available on companiesandmarkets.com. The top three products: Remicade, Humira and Enbrel accounted for 40.1% of the market in 2010.

23 Aug 2011

NovaDel, Rechon enter license and distribution agreement for Zolpimist

NovaDel Pharma Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops oral spray formulations of marketed pharmaceutical products, today announced its entry into an exclusive license and distribution agreement with Rechon Life Science AB to manufacture and commercialize Zolpimist® outside the United States and Canada. Zolpimist is our oral spray formulation of zolpidem tartrate approved by the FDA in December of 2008.

23 Aug 2011

Isconova expands Matrix M collaboration with Genocea to treat infectious diseases

Isconova AB, a leading international vaccine adjuvant company and Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a vaccine discovery and development company pioneering a new class of T cell‐based vaccines, today announced the expansion of their collaboration granting Genocea the right to use Isconova's Matrix M in vaccines targeting two additional diseases.

23 Aug 2011

AstraZeneca announces availability of BRILINTA tablets in the U.S. pharmacies

AstraZeneca today announced that BRILINTA tablets, a new oral antiplatelet therapy, is now available in pharmacies in the United States.

23 Aug 2011

Vertex receives Health Canada approval for INCIVEK to treat hepatitis C

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced that Health Canada has approved INCIVEK tablets for a broad group of people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C with compensated liver disease, including cirrhosis.

23 Aug 2011

Drug co. executive gives pharma a sunny forecast

Severin Schwan thinks the skeptics are wrong. Those who shun the pharmaceutical sector for its lack of prospects don't understand the potential created by a rapidly growing understanding of genetics and molecular biology, and the new drugs that will follow. ... the chief executive of Roche Holding AG, the world's seventh-largest drug firm by sales, is an informed optimist.

22 Aug 2011

Modified Ecstasy could be effective against cancer: Study

Researchers from Birmingham University have designed a drug similar to the illicit drug Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) that could be used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma after making it 100 times more effective at suppressing growth.

22 Aug 2011