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Clinical study: Plant extract can fight effectively against hay fever

Fighting hay fever with a plant extract - this works, as was shown in a clinical study conducted by researchers of the Center of Allergy & Environment of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität München.

27 Apr 2011

Rwanda launches Africa's first nationwide cervical cancer vaccination, detection program

Rwandan First Lady Jeannette Kagame on Tuesday, in collaboration with two companies, launched a national cervical cancer vaccination and screening program, the first of its kind in Africa, the New Times reports.

27 Apr 2011

Socioeconomic status linked to medication non-adherence in children with epilepsy

An examination of medication adherence among children with newly diagnosed epilepsy found that nearly 60 percent showed persistent nonadherence during the first 6 months of therapy, and that lower socioeconomic status was associated with higher non-adherence, according to a study in the April 27 issue of JAMA.

27 Apr 2011

MSF letter criticizes Johnson & Johnson for not joining Medicines Patent Pool

Medecins Sans Frontieres recently sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson criticizing the pharmaceutical company for "refusing to make patents on three HIV drugs available to a program that would reduce the cost of the medicines in developing countries," the Star-Ledger reports.

27 Apr 2011

High Court hears arguments regarding access to docs' prescribing data

In this case, the state of Vermont is battling drug companies and data-mining firms. Vermont's law bans the sale of prescribing information unless physicians "opt in" and make their records available.

27 Apr 2011

RegenceRx supports DEA program to raise awareness on unused prescription drugs

In a nationwide effort to clear homes of potentially dangerous, expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs, RegenceRx is supporting the Drug Enforcement Administration's National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day taking place on Saturday, April 30.

27 Apr 2011

EPO grants patent to Microbix' VIRUSMAX vaccine enhancement technology

Microbix Biosystems Inc., a biotechnology company commercializing novel technologies to enhance vaccine production yields, and other innovative biologics, announced today that the European Patent Office recently granted patent protection for the company's proprietary VIRUSMAX technology, which is designed to increase influenza vaccine yields and has demonstrated an average yield increase of at least two-fold over current vaccine production methods.

27 Apr 2011

Rxi secures SBIR grants to develop novel RNAi therapeutics for ALS

RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies addressing major unmet medical needs using RNA-targeted and immunotherapy technologies, today announced that it was awarded two Small Business Innovation Research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

27 Apr 2011

ISC-4 topical compound may prevent skin cancer lesion formation

While incidents of melanoma continue to increase despite the use of sunscreen and skin screenings, a topical compound called ISC-4 may prevent melanoma lesion formation, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

27 Apr 2011

Azithromycin holds promise for preventing BPD in Ureaplasma-infected preterm infants

A study performed by University of Kentucky researchers shows promise for the use of azithromycin in treating Ureaplasma-colonized or infected premature infants to prevent bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).

27 Apr 2011

Columbia requests FDA Priority Review for PROCHIEVE progesterone gel NDA

Columbia Laboratories, Inc., and Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that Columbia has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for PROCHIEVE® (progesterone gel) for the reduction of risk of preterm birth in women with short uterine cervical length in the mid-trimester of pregnancy.

27 Apr 2011

FDA grants orphan drug status to Provectus' PV-10 for liver cancer treatment

Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company, has received orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Rose Bengal, the active ingredient in its novel oncology drug PV-10, for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of primary liver cancer.

27 Apr 2011

Lilly and Medtronic’s joint venture in Parkinson’s disease therapy

Lilly has already developed a protein called GDNF (glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor) known to preserve the function of neurons and Medtronic will provide a system that carries the medicine to a key area of the brain.

From Medtronic 26 Apr 2011

Newer birth control pill raises risk of blood clots

Two human trials in the US and the UK including women from both populations showed that women taking newer forms of oral contraceptives, which include drosperinone, a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, increased their risk of developing a blood clots by two or three times over those taking older birth control pills that rely on a different form of the hormone known as levonorgestrel.

26 Apr 2011

Durata attains global rights for dalbavancin to treat abSSSI

Durata Therapeutics today announced the Company has attained worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of Durata's lead product, dalbavancin, a long-acting, intravenous (IV) lipoglycopeptide for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (abSSSI). In December 2010, Durata acquired from RaQualia Pharma commercialization rights for dalbavancin in Japan.

26 Apr 2011

Anti-inflammatory drugs reduce effectiveness of widely used antidepressant medications

Scientists at the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research at The Rockefeller University, led by Paul Greengard, Ph.D., and Jennifer Warner-Schmidt, Ph.D., have shown that anti-inflammatory drugs, which include ibuprofen, aspirin and naproxen, reduce the effectiveness of the most widely used class of antidepressant medications, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, taken for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders.

26 Apr 2011

Collins, Orszag criticize Ryan plan; Santorum rues Medicare prescription benefit vote

As former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum contemplates a bid for the GOP presidential nomination, he expresses regret over his vote for the unfunded Medicare prescription drug bill. Sen. Collins says she'll oppose Ryan plan, while Peter Orszag says it would increase overall health care costs.

26 Apr 2011

Ohio State Roundtable to discuss about cancer drug development

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute and Friends of Cancer Research are convening a high-level group of stakeholders to discuss current obstacles halting co-development of two or more experimental drugs for the treatment of cancer.

26 Apr 2011

Merck receives Health Canada approval for GARDASIL to treat HPV in women upto age 45

Today, Merck announced that Health Canada has extended the indication of GARDASIL in women up to the age of 45. Merck's HPV vaccine is now approved for girls and women nine through 45 years of age for the prevention of cervical cancer, vulvar and vaginal cancers, precancerous lesions and genital warts caused by the Human Papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, 18. Previously, GARDASIL was approved in girls and women nine through 26.

26 Apr 2011

Caliber opens world's largest plant-made pharmaceutical facility in Bryan

Caliber Biotherapeutics, a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company, announced the opening of the world's largest plant-made pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Bryan, Texas, with the capability of producing 10-100 million doses of infectious vaccines per month, and hundreds of thousands of doses of protein biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies.

26 Apr 2011