Eye Health News and Research

Latest Eye Health News and Research

QLT receives exclusive U.S. sales and marketing rights for Visudyne therapy

QLT Inc. ("QLT" or the "Company") today announced that it has restructured its agreement with Novartis Pharma AG ("Novartis") to simplify the relationship, under which, effective January 1, 2010, it will, among other things, receive exclusive U.S. rights to the Visudyne(R) patents to sell and market Visudyne in the U.S. Visudyne, a photosensitizer co-developed with Novartis, is approved worldwide for the treatment of a form of wet age-related macular degeneration ("AMD"), the leading cause of legal blindness in people over the age of 55 in North America and Europe.

19 Oct 2009

Stem cell treatments could repair the kidney defects associated with Alport syndrome

Several cell-based therapy approaches could provide new treatments for patients with Alport syndrome, reports an upcoming paper in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "Our study opens up many considerations of how new therapies related to the use of stem cells can be devised for our kidney patients with chronic disease," comments Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA).

19 Oct 2009

More nutrition guidance needed to build good eating habits in growing children, says Nestle FITS survey

Parents and caregivers are hearing and following the feeding guidance for infants, yet continued work needs to be done to help them also build good eating habits for their growing children, suggests data from the Nestle Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) released today at a symposium at the American Dietetic Association's Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo.

19 Oct 2009

Palomar Medical Technologies to continue commercialization of its wrinkle treatment laser device

Palomar Medical Technologies Inc., a leading researcher and developer of light-based systems for cosmetic treatments, today announced the termination of its agreement with Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc ("JJCC"), a Johnson & Johnson company, to develop, clinically test and commercialize home-use, light-based devices for (i) reducing or reshaping body fat including cellulite; (ii) reducing appearance of skin aging; and (iii) reducing or preventing acne.

19 Oct 2009

Study to examine the impact of LASIK procedure on patients’ quality of life

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the launch of a collaborative study with the National Eye Institute and the U.S. Department of Defense to examine the potential impact on quality of life from Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK), a surgical procedure that uses an eximer laser to permanently change the shape of the cornea.

19 Oct 2009

CCID Consulting releases article on China’s portable medical electronics field

CCID Consulting, China’s leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: HK08235), released its article on China’s portable medical electronics field.

19 Oct 2009

Gloomy health care statistics in Texas top state news

New outlets report on a variety of health issues at the state level including gloomy health statistics and the rising cost of premiums for sick workers in Texas, a Medicaid program that could provide a model for national health care reform in North Carolina and Medicaid cuts in Michigan.

19 Oct 2009

Migraine can stimulate alcohol-induced headache

Migraine sufferers, beware. You may be more prone to an alcohol-induced headache after a night of drinking, according to researchers from the Jefferson Headache Center.

19 Oct 2009

Coronary angiography does not affect kidney functioning in CKD patients, reveals study

A screening test that measures whether a patient's heart is healthy enough for a kidney transplant is not as dangerous as once thought, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

19 Oct 2009

Psychology researchers reveal the importance of peripheral vision

Two Kansas State University psychology researchers have found that although central vision allows our eyes to discern the details of a scene, our peripheral vision is most important for telling us what type of scene we're looking at in the first place, such as whether it is a street, a mountain or a kitchen.

19 Oct 2009

JMCR and Cases Journal return to BioMed Central's publishing portfolio

BioMed Central is once again publishing the Journal of Medical Case Reports (JMCR) and Cases Journals. Since their inception, both these journals, which currently provide over 2000 freely accessible case reports have received widespread recognition and high quality submissions from across the medical community.

15 Oct 2009

pSivida achieves milestone in Phase III Iluvien trial, last patient completes two-year follow up visit

pSivida Corp., a leading drug delivery company that has developed two of the only three products approved by the FDA for the long-term, sustained release delivery of drug to treat chronic back of the eye disease, today announced that the last patient in the Phase III clinical trial being conducted by its collaborative partner, Alimera Sciences, for a new treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME) has completed the two-year follow up visit.

15 Oct 2009

Snowe's vote paves way for other centrists to support Baucus health bill

Before voting with the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, had been involved in negotiations for months that led to the shape of the measure's key elements, USA Today reports.

15 Oct 2009

NYU Langone Medical Center to establish a schizophrenia research center with $10M NIMH grant

NYU Langone Medical Center has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to establish a Silvio O. Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders. The center, named after the late Silvio O. Conte, a U.S. congressman and advocate for mental health research, will study the onset of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a disease with cognitive dysfunction, affecting approximately one percent of the population worldwide.

15 Oct 2009

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals completes public offering of common stock shares

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the completion of its previously-announced public offering of shares of its common stock. The offering included an aggregate of 38,333,332 shares of Lexicon's common stock after the exercise in full by the underwriters of their over-allotment option and by Invus, L.P., Lexicon's largest stockholder, of its associated right to purchase additional shares.

15 Oct 2009

Vision scientists identify an intricate process that allows the human eye to adapt quickly to darkness

Ever wonder how your eyes adjust during a blackout? When we go from light to near total darkness, cells in the retina must quickly adjust. Vision scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified an intricate process that allows the human eye to adapt to darkness very quickly. The same process also allows the eye to function in bright light.

14 Oct 2009

Wellstar International enters into financing agreement with JMJ Financial

Wellstar International, Inc., has announced that it has entered into a financing agreement with JMJ Financial to provide the Company with an expected $1.2 million dollars in operational funding over the eighteen months. Details of the financing were contained in the Company's Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 9, 2009.

14 Oct 2009

New non-invasive technology to measure glucose levels in the human eye

New non-invasive technology designed to painlessly measure glucose levels in the human eye shows promise of one day replacing the finger-stick blood test, according to results of a pre-clinical study funded by Freedom Meditech, Inc.

14 Oct 2009

CeloNova BioSciences' Embozene Microspheres receives approval

CeloNova BioSciences, Inc. has received approval from its European regulatory body, the British Standards Institution, to expand the list of medical indications for which Embozene(TM) Microspheres may be used and to add a tenth size of the product.

14 Oct 2009

Antisense Therapeutics completes repeat-dosing toxicology studies for ATL1103

Antisense Therapeutics Limited is pleased to announce that the Company has now completed repeat-dosing toxicology studies for ATL1103 in two species -- mouse and non-human primate. Draft study reports from the study contractors in the United States have been received, and the toxicology outcomes from these studies support ANP's plans for the continued development of ATL1103.

14 Oct 2009