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What steps should be taken when medicine can't save a life?

Writing for The New Yorker, Atul Gawande explores the central medical issues involved in treating patients with terminal conditions. He asks the question: "[I]f you were the one who had metastatic cancer—or, for that matter, a similarly advanced case of emphysema or congestive heart failure—what would you want your doctors to do? The issue has become pressing, in recent years, for reasons of expense.

28 Jul 2010

Morphine blocks new blood vessel and tumor growth: Study

Current research suggests that taking morphine can block new blood vessel and tumor growth. The related report by Koodie et al, "Morphine suppresses tumor angiogenesis through a HIF1α/p38MAPK pathway," appears in the August 2010 issue of the American Journal of Pathology.

28 Jul 2010

Alcohol consumption reduces risk of rheumatoid arthritis: Study

Drinking alcohol may reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis according to new research published today. It is the first time that this effect has been shown in humans. The study also finds that alcohol consumption reduces the risk of developing the disease, confirming the results of previous studies.

28 Jul 2010

Redspin offers additional HIPAA security assessment service for healthcare industry segment

Redspin, a leading provider of information security assessment services today announced an additional HIPAA security assessment service offering for the healthcare industry segment. The service offering directly addresses requirements of the HIPAA security rule and HITECH act through a risk-based approach that identifies gaps and IT environment and HIPAA security rule requirements.

28 Jul 2010

Rite Aid agrees to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of HIPAA Privacy Rule

Rite Aid Corporation and its 40 affiliated entities (RAC) have agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today. In a coordinated action, RAC also signed a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to settle potential violations of the FTC Act.

28 Jul 2010

Research findings provide new insight into skeletal development

Too little of a protein called neogenin results in a smaller skeleton during development and sets the stage for a more fragile bone framework lifelong, Medical College of Georgia researchers report.

28 Jul 2010

Obese seniors more likely to suffer from disabilities: UTMB study

Thanks to rising obesity rates in Latin America and the Caribbean, elderly people there are becoming more likely to suffer from disabilities, according to a paper recently published by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

28 Jul 2010

Scientists identify genetic variants for breast cancer

Women with higher risk scores that consisted of having certain genetic variants most strongly linked to breast cancer had an associated higher risk of breast cancer, with these scores also highly predictive of estrogen receptor-positive disease, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA.

28 Jul 2010

Regeneron second-quarter total revenues increase to $115.9 million

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced financial and operating results for the second quarter of 2010. The Company reported a net loss of $25.5 million, or $0.31 per share (basic and diluted), for the second quarter of 2010 compared with a net loss of $14.9 million, or $0.19 per share (basic and diluted), for the second quarter of 2009.

28 Jul 2010

New York Times examines questions left unanswered by microbicide trial

The New York Times examines a set of questions raised by news out of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 last week that a microbicide gel containing the antiretroviral tenofovir used by women before and after sex helped reduce their risk of HIV infection by 39 percent.

28 Jul 2010

Response Biomedical announces shareholder approval for $8 million private placement

Response Biomedical Corporation announced that at the Company's Special General Shareholders' Meeting held today in Vancouver, shareholders approved the private placement of an aggregate of 13,333,333 common shares, at a price of Cdn. $0.60 per Offered Share, to Caduceus Private Investments III, LP, OrbiMed Associates III, LP and Caduceus Asia Partners, LP for gross proceeds of approximately Cdn. $8 million.

28 Jul 2010

Integral Molecular receives patent for Lipoparticle membrane protein technology

Integral Molecular, Inc. today announced the issuance of a key patent covering its technology for deriving high concentrations of membrane proteins. The patent, issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, covers the core composition of Integral Molecular's Lipoparticle technology, a novel cell-free format for deriving highly-concentrated membrane proteins for antibody development, drug discovery, and biomedical research.

28 Jul 2010

Merck signs non-exclusive license agreement with LabCorp for commercialization of genetic test

Merck announced a non-exclusive license agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings for the commercialization of a genetic test that may help predict the response of patients with Hepatitis C virus infection to peginterferon alpha-based therapy.

28 Jul 2010

Genzyme accepts CMS decision for delaying Renvela administration to dialysis patients

Genzyme Corp.today said it welcomed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' decision not to include oral medications without IV equivalents in Medicare's End Stage Renal Disease patient benefit. According to the final rule, these medications, including Genzyme's Renvela (sevelamer carbonate), will not be included in the bundle until January 1, 2014.

28 Jul 2010

NYU Langone opens vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy trial to men with localized prostate cancer

NYU Langone Medical Center has begun a clinical trial offering vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy to patients with localized prostate cancer. This novel, minimally invasive procedure uses a light-activated drug to deliver light energy waves by way of laser fibers in order to destroy prostate cancer cells.

28 Jul 2010

National health campaigns make men less likely to choose cancer screening: Study

In Germany, several national health campaigns promote cancer screening by announcing that only one in five German men gets screened. This is supposed to motivate men to have an examination. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this well-meaning message has the exact opposite effect: it makes men less likely to choose to get screened.

28 Jul 2010

GSK awards NCCN $4 million grant for study of ofatumumab and pazopanib

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network has been awarded two individual $2 million grants from GlaxoSmithKline to support clinical studies of ofatumumab (Arzerra®, GlaxoSmithKline) in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and pazopanib (Votrient®, GlaxoSmithKline) in the treatment of solid tumors.

28 Jul 2010

Mediomics receives additional $460,000 in STTR Phase II grant for PINCER protein assay development

Mediomics, LLC has received an additional $460,000 in a renewal of its 2nd year STTR Phase II grant (R42GM079891) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Since 2007, Mediomics has received over one million dollars of STTR funding to develop its quick and sensitive homogenous PINCER™ protein assay. The major goal of the second year project is to further increase the sensitivity of the biosensor.

28 Jul 2010

LLS collaborates with Shape Pharmaceuticals to advance treatment for CTCL

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and Shape Pharmaceuticals announced today that they have entered into a partnership to advance Shape's novel, topical treatment for cutaneous T-Cell lymphoma (CTCL) into clinical development. The compound, SHP-141, is a first-in-class topical histone deacetylase inhibitor with the potential to treat both early- and late-stage CTCL.

28 Jul 2010

Medicare to bundle payments for end-stage renal care, reward quality

Medicare payment for end-stage renal disease care may soon be tied to performance and quality measures if a new proposed rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is finalized. "If the rule is finalized, ESRD providers that do not meet set standards" - two measures for anemia management and one for hemodialysis quality - "could have their Medicare payments lowered by up to 2 percent starting January 2012, the CMS said" (McKinney, 7/26).

28 Jul 2010

Medical News

What steps should be taken when medicine can't save a life?

Morphine blocks new blood vessel and tumor growth: Study

Alcohol consumption reduces risk of rheumatoid arthritis: Study

Redspin offers additional HIPAA security assessment service for healthcare industry segment

Rite Aid agrees to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of HIPAA Privacy Rule

Research findings provide new insight into skeletal development

Obese seniors more likely to suffer from disabilities: UTMB study

Scientists identify genetic variants for breast cancer

Regeneron second-quarter total revenues increase to $115.9 million

New York Times examines questions left unanswered by microbicide trial

Response Biomedical announces shareholder approval for $8 million private placement

Integral Molecular receives patent for Lipoparticle membrane protein technology

Merck signs non-exclusive license agreement with LabCorp for commercialization of genetic test

Genzyme accepts CMS decision for delaying Renvela administration to dialysis patients

NYU Langone opens vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy trial to men with localized prostate cancer

National health campaigns make men less likely to choose cancer screening: Study

GSK awards NCCN $4 million grant for study of ofatumumab and pazopanib

Mediomics receives additional $460,000 in STTR Phase II grant for PINCER protein assay development

LLS collaborates with Shape Pharmaceuticals to advance treatment for CTCL

Medicare to bundle payments for end-stage renal care, reward quality

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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