Pregnancy News and Research

Latest Pregnancy News and Research

Advisory panel recommends FDA approve new "morning after" pill

The New York Times: A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel Thursday recommended that the agency approve "a medicine that could help prevent pregnancy if taken as late as five days after unprotected sex. The pill, called ella, sprang from government labs and appears to be more effective than Plan B, a morning-after pill now available over the counter to women 18 and older that gradually loses efficacy after intercourse and can be taken at latest three days after sex.

18 Jun 2010

Neupro improves wellbeing impaired by pain related to Restless Legs Syndrome

The first data to show that Neupro® (rotigotine transdermal system) significantly improved wellbeing and daily activities that are often impaired by pain related to Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) were presented this week at the 14th International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

18 Jun 2010

Maternal, infant ART drives down mother-to-child HIV transmission through breast-feeding, studies show

According to two new studies, "giving pregnant and nursing women triple antiretroviral drug therapy, or treating breast-fed infants with an antiretroviral medication, can dramatically cut transmission rates, enabling moms to both breast-feed and to protect nearly all children from infection," HealthDay News/Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Goodwin, 6/16).

18 Jun 2010

Paternal involvement in pregnancy reduces infant deaths

Studies have shown fathers who are active in their children's upbringing can significantly benefit their children's early development, academic achievement and well being. Now, a new study by University of South Florida researchers suggests that a father's involvement before his child is born may play an important role in preventing death during the first year of life - particularly if the infant is black.

18 Jun 2010

Biological mechanism associated with remission during pregnancy

During pregnancy, many women experience remission of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and uveitis. Now, scientists have described a biological mechanism responsible for changes in the immune system that helps to explain the remission.

17 Jun 2010

Obesity linked to bad sexual health: French Study

Now French researchers have found a link between obesity and bad sexual health in their study of 12,364 men and women aged 18 to 69 ranging from normal weight to obese who lived in France in 2006.

17 Jun 2010

Fertility drugs cause multiple and premature births

The widespread use of fertility drugs, not just high-tech laboratory procedures, plays a major role in causing multiple births and contributes to the problem of premature birth in the United States, experts said today at the March of Dimes National Communications Advisory Council luncheon.

17 Jun 2010

New drug application for ulipristal acetate as emergency contraceptive misleading, says Family Research Council

Tomorrow, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a hearing to consider approval of a new drug application for an abortifacient drug, ulipristal acetate, as an emergency contraceptive, or a new "Plan B."

17 Jun 2010

Researchers study science and clinical treatment of FAS

It's long been known that alcohol use in pregnancy can lead to children with mental retardation and birth defects, but researchers who study fetal alcohol syndrome have not made definitive progress on preventing the disorder, detecting it early, or effectively treating it, say researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center.

16 Jun 2010

Bayer sues Teva, Barr in connection with oral contraceptive Gianvi

Today, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer Schering Pharma AG sued Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Barr Pharmaceuticals LLC, and Barr Laboratories, Inc. in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) for false advertising and patent infringement in connection with Teva's generic oral contraceptive, Gianvi™. Teva's product is sold as a generic version of Bayer HealthCare's leading oral contraceptive YAZ®.

16 Jun 2010

Billions spent yet millions live in poverty: Radical change needed in science, technology and innovation

Out-of-date innovation policy is undermining unprecedented opportunities for development aid to improve the environment and combat global poverty, according to a new Manifesto published today. We live in an era of rapid scientific advance yet poverty is deepening, the environment is in crisis and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals has stalled.

15 Jun 2010

ATA members raise concern about reduction in dietary iodine intake

Following publication of an article in the February 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 362 No. 7 pp 590-599) by Bibbins-Domingo, et al. that projected the effect of moderate dietary salt reductions on future cardiac disease rates, several members of the American Thyroid Association, concerned about the subsequent potential reduction in availability of iodine, have responded with a letter in the current issue of the NEJM (Vol. 362 No. 23 pp 2224-2226).

15 Jun 2010

BioAMD establishes headquarters at Daresbury SIC

Flex Fuels Energy, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, BioAMD Holdings Ltd., has established its headquarters at the prestigious Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus in the United Kingdom. BioAMD is in the $12.6 billion Point-of-Care medical diagnostics industry.

14 Jun 2010

FDA clears U.Va.'s SpermCheck Fertility at-home test

Couples will soon have a new tool in diagnosing male infertility - without the expense and inconvenience associated with a trip to a specialist's office.

14 Jun 2010

ARBs increase risk of cancer: Study

University Hospitals Case Medical Center cardiologists have uncovered new research showing an increased risk of cancer with a group of blood pressure medications known as angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs).

14 Jun 2010

Phase III study of REVLIMID for treating patients with multiple myeloma shows improvement in PFS

Celgene International Sàrl announced that data from the planned second interim analysis (median follow-up of 21 months) of a phase III, randomized, double-blind study of continuous REVLIMID (lenalidomide) for the treatment of elderly patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma show improvement in progression-free survival, the primary endpoint of the study.

14 Jun 2010

Telmisartan reduces hypertension, cardiovascular risk in ACE-intolerant patients: Boehringer Ingelheim

Telmisartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker, is one of the best researched drugs worldwide. It has been studied in clinical trials in more than 50,000 patients. Its positive safety profile has been confirmed also in a market exposure of 34.5 million patient years. Convincing safety data for patients with a high cardiovascular risk were collected in the three long-term outcome trials ONTARGET, PRoFESS and TRANSCEND which followed some of the patients for up to five years.

14 Jun 2010

Clinical data from investigational study of patients with multiple myeloma presented at ASCO

Celgene International Sàrl announced clinical data from an investigational study of patients with multiple myeloma who were younger than 65 years old and received either lenalidomide (REVLIMID), melphalan and prednisone or melphalan plus autologous stem cell transplant (MEL200) following an induction treatment of lenalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone (Rd) were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

11 Jun 2010

Research may lead to better treatments for depression and substance abuse

In what has been hailed as a breakthrough, scientists from Columbia University Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College have outlined the molecular mechanism of membrane transport. The research shows how a protein transforms its shape to transport substances across the cell membrane in order to regulate transmission of the brain's messages across the synaptic gap from one neuron to another.

11 Jun 2010

Baylor Institute of Immunology Research receives nearly $35M as grants in 2009

Even in an economy that's proved devastating to charitable giving and government grants, the Baylor Institute of Immunology Research (BIIR), a component of Baylor Research Institute (BRI), has managed to buck the trend: BIIR received grants totaling nearly $35 million in 2009.

10 Jun 2010