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Ecstasy redesigned for use against blood cancer

The illicit drug ecstasy has been redesigned by researchers at the University of WA for use in treatment of blood cancers.

30 Aug 2011

Roundup: Calif. ruling may extend mental health coverage; Conn. dropping early intervention program; Alaska clinic focuses on Medicare patients

A Northern California woman's treatment for anorexia at a residential facility was medically necessary and must be covered by her healthcare plan, a federal appeals court has ruled in a case that could lead to more extensive benefits for those being treated for mental illnesses.

30 Aug 2011

Bird flu on the rise again

Avian or bird flu is showing signs of a resurgence, while a mutant strain – that cannot be prevented by vaccination - could be spreading in Asia, the United Nations has warned. This mutant strain appeared in Vietnam and China and its risk to humans cannot be predicted, veterinary officials said.

30 Aug 2011

Governor Perry attacked for choosing new medical treatment

Recently, the governor of Texas and presidential hopeful had a bad back treated by injecting some of his very own fat cells, after they had been cultured and treated in a laboratory. The innovative use of a patient’s own adult stem cells is showing great promise in many conditions, including damaged joints.

29 Aug 2011

Student researchers throughout Australia compete for annual award

Student researchers from throughout Australia will compete for state and national titles in the country’s leading competition for life science, biotechnology and bio-engineering students: the 2011 AusBiotech-GSK Student Excellence Awards. Applications are now open for the 2011 awards.

29 Aug 2011

Hurricane Irene affects supplies of several blood types

New York Blood Center (NYBC), serving more than 20 million people in New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and New Jersey, is following the emergency declarations of Mayor Bloomberg and other tri-state public officials with an emergency appeal for blood donors. The supply of several blood types, including O-negative ("universal donor") blood, which is normally maintained at the three-to-five-day inventory level, has dropped below the two-day minimum level.

29 Aug 2011

Optical treatment strategies to correct peripheral vision may slow progression of myopia

New scientific evidence on how feedback from the eye affects visual development may lead to more effective approaches to treating myopia (nearsightedness) in children, reports a paper in the September issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

29 Aug 2011

Adimab initiates independent collaborations with Biogen Idec and Novo Nordisk

Adimab, LLC, a technology leader in the discovery of fully human antibodies, today announced the initiation of two independent collaborations with Biogen Idec and Novo Nordisk. Over the past two years, Adimab has established collaborations with multiple leading pharmaceutical companies, including: Merck, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Human Genome Sciences, and now Biogen Idec and Novo Nordisk.

29 Aug 2011

BioAmber selects Sarnia as location for first North American biosuccinic acid plant

BioAmber Inc., through its subsidiary Bluewater Biochemicals has selected Sarnia, Ontario, Canada as the location for its first North American biosuccinic acid plant. The Sarnia plant will have an initial capacity of 17,000 MT and will be commissioned in 2013. Permitting work for the plant was initiated in June 2011. BioAmber currently produces and sells biobased succinic acid at a 3,000 MT capacity plant in France.

29 Aug 2011

Curemark's novel compound CM-182 shows promise for treatment of hyperactivity without sedation

Curemark, LLC, a drug research and development company focused on the treatment of neurological diseases, announced today that its compound CM-182 demonstrated positive results for reduction in hyperactivity in mice treated with amphetamines. The mouse model screening was performed by the contract research organization, Cerca Insights.

29 Aug 2011

Money alone cannot fix Russia's 'demographic crisis'

Russia "is in a demographic crisis, shedding 2.2 million people (or 1.6 percent of the population) since 2002, and the government is trying to encourage more women to bring Russian citizens into the world," journalist Natalia Antonova writes in a Foreign Policy opinion piece, in which she describes her experience with the Russian medical system after "unexpectedly" becoming pregnant shortly after receiving her visa to work in Moscow.

29 Aug 2011

Pfizer receives FDA approval of XALKORI for ALK-positive NSCLC

Pfizer Inc. has received FDA approval of XALKORI (crizotinib) capsules - the first and only therapy specifically for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by an FDA-approved test.

29 Aug 2011

Zymeworks, Merck collaborate to develop novel bi-specific antibody therapeutic candidates

Zymeworks Inc. today announced a research collaboration with Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, around Zymeworks' proprietary Azymetric platform for the development of novel bi-specific antibody therapeutic candidates. Bi-specific antibodies are designed to bind to two different drug targets for broad use in clinical applications such as oncology or autoimmune disease.

29 Aug 2011

Covalon reports net loss of $1,207,559 for third quarter 2011

Mr. Brian Pedlar, President and CEO of Covalon Technologies Ltd., an advanced medical technologies company, is pleased to provide the following update. "We are very pleased that Covalon continues to make excellent progress in meeting its objectives.

29 Aug 2011

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry on health issues

In analyzing Texas Gov. Rick Perry's health record, medical malpractice reform is one of the issues he appears to be most passionate about.

29 Aug 2011

Affinium closes $15 million financing round

Affinium Pharmaceuticals announced today the closing of its $15 million financing. Investors participating in the financing include all three of Affinium's Series A investors, SV Life Sciences, Genesis Capital Partners and Forward Ventures, along with the addition of the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund (OETF) to the syndicate.

29 Aug 2011

New insights into Lafora disease

Short-term energy storage in animal cells is usually achieved through the accumulation of glucose, in the form of long and branched chains, known as glycogen. But when this accumulation happens in neurons it is fatal, causing them to degenerate. This neuronal deterioration and death associated with glycogen accumulation is the hallmark of an extremely rare and progressive type of epilepsy known as Lafora disease (LD).

29 Aug 2011

For NAIC, some signals suggest broker bill is losing traction

The Hill reports that a spokeswoman for the chairman of the NAIC's Professional Health Insurance Advisors Task Force said no major action on the issue was planned for the group's conference. In other news, MSNBC reports that, as insurance prices rise, options appear to diminish, creating questions about how much relief the health law will provide. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explores health reform's winners and losers.

29 Aug 2011

Bioness announces commercial release of NESS L300 Plus System

Bioness Inc., today announced the commercial release of its NESS L300 Plus System. Cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year, the L300 Plus combines the award winning NESS L300 Foot Drop System with a thigh cuff to activate even more of the nerves and muscles in the leg for greater control while walking.

29 Aug 2011

CMS: Insurers need to create plans for dual eligibles

Medicare Advantage insurers that cover some of the most expensive patients must develop individualized plans to coordinate care for each one, according to a final CMS rule issued Friday. The agency also formalized language in the Affordable Care Act requiring these so-called Special Needs Plans, which handle the costly population covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, to implement quality improvement programs and be certified in 2012 by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

29 Aug 2011