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Study says quality not hurt when nurse anesthetists work without doc guidance

A new study published Tuesday in Health Affairs suggests that nurse anesthetists' quality of work is not lower when they aren't supervised by a doctor, The Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports. "The background for this is that Medicare won't reimburse for anesthesia services unless a physician is supervising what's going on.

5 Aug 2010

Life Technologies launches AutoMate Express Forensic DNA Extraction System

Life Technologies Corporation today announced the commercial availability of the Applied Biosystems AutoMate Express™ Forensic DNA Extraction System, which is designed to streamline sample preparation and improve downstream DNA profile quality. The system, designed and validated as part of the complete Applied Biosystems human identification workflow to provide optimal efficiency and data quality, has already been adopted by all 48 government forensic laboratories in Japan.

5 Aug 2010

Lux Biosciences receives CRL for Voclosporin

Isotechnika Pharma Inc. today announced that their partner, Lux Biosciences, Inc., has received a Complete Response letter (CRL) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding their New Drug Application (NDA) for voclosporin. Lux's NDA, filed in February 2010, seeks approval for voclosporin in the treatment of non-infectious uveitis involving the intermediate or posterior segments of the eye.

5 Aug 2010

ImmunoGen fourth-quarter 2010 net loss increases to $13.4 million

ImmunoGen, Inc., a biotechnology company that develops targeted anticancer products using its antibody expertise and Targeted Antibody Payload (TAP) technology, today announced financial results for the three-month period and fiscal year ended June 30, 2010.

5 Aug 2010

NanoBio Corporation receives U.S. patent for nanoemulsion technology

NanoBio Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a seventh U.S. patent covering its novel nanoemulsion technology. The new claims encompass methods of treating Herpes Simplex I infections, including herpes labialis (commonly referred to as cold sores), using NanoBio's proprietary anti-infective nanoemulsion product candidates.

5 Aug 2010

Foldit players to focus on designing novel proteins

Computer scientists and biochemists at the University of Washington two years ago launched an ambitious project harnessing the brainpower of computer gamers to solve medical problems. The game, Foldit, turns one of the hardest problems in molecular biology into a game a bit reminiscent of Tetris. Thousands of people have now played a game that asks them to fold a protein rather than stack colored blocks or rescue a princess.

5 Aug 2010

Canadian physician organization: Country's health system needs to be 'massively transformed'

The Toronto Star: Canada's largest physician group released a report Tuesday saying that Canada's health system needs to be changed to allow "universal access to prescription drugs and improved outpatient services." The Canadian Medical Association called for the changes because it says the system is insufficient to meet the needs of Canada's aging population.

5 Aug 2010

Excess maternal weight gain predicts high birth weight: Research

Expectant mothers who gain large amounts of weight tend to give birth to heavier infants who are at higher risk for obesity later in life. But it's never been proven that this tendency results from the weight gain itself, rather than genetic or other factors that mother and baby share. A large population-based study from Children's Hospital Boston, looking at two or more pregnancies in the same mother, now provides evidence that excess maternal weight gain is a strong, independent predictor of high birth weight.

5 Aug 2010

Ferroportin levels are strong predictors of propensity for breast cancer recurrence: Study

A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) may soon help to spare some women with breast cancer from having to undergo invasive and toxic treatments for their disease.

5 Aug 2010

AMRI second-quarter adjusted EPS increases to $0.06

AMRI today reported financial and operating results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010.

5 Aug 2010

Consumer, insurers prepare as more health law provisions will take effect next month

Associated Press: Health care reform hits another milestone next month, with new provisions that include a coverage expansion for young adults and restrictions on an insurer's ability to impose annual coverage limits or to reject children with pre-existing medical conditions. Insurance coverage that starts on or after Sept. 23 will have to comply with these changes and others that were put in place when President Barack Obama signed the health overhaul into law March 23." Many plans won't renew until later on (Murphy, 8/3).

5 Aug 2010

Scientists suggest home genetic tests may cause unnecessary stress

In the age of the Internet, where cybercondriacs are just a mouse click away from a diagnosis, do-it-yourself home genetics test may seem like the next logical step in managing health. But these tests, which are relatively new and available online, are often not comprehensive and may cause unnecessary stress, warns Suzanne Mahon, DNSc., a clinical professor of hematology and oncology at Saint Louis University.

5 Aug 2010

Daiichi Sankyo reaches agreement with Apotex to settle Evoxac patent litigation

Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. and its parent company, Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd, have reached an agreement with Apotex Inc. and Apotex Corp. to settle their patent litigation involving Apotex's challenge to Daiichi Sankyo's U.S. Patent Number 5,340,821 covering Evoxac® (cevimeline HCl).

5 Aug 2010

DURECT second-quarter net loss decreases to $6.3 million

DURECT Corporation announced today financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2010. Total revenues were $7.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2010 compared to $4.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2009. Net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2010 was $6.3 million, compared to a net loss of $7.5 million for the same period in 2009.

5 Aug 2010

FDA to crack down on devices; Big pharma places riskier bets on biologics

The Associated Press: "Makers of X-ray machines, drug pumps and other medical devices would have to submit more safety information to win federal approval under a proposal designed to tighten regulation of thousands of products reviewed each year. The Food and Drug Administration released recommendations Tuesday night designed to improve oversight of the U.S. device industry, including the government's ability to revoke approval for products that prove unsafe or ineffective" (Perrone, 8/3).

5 Aug 2010

Scientists develop new chip to increase forensic DNA testing speed

A newly developed test could make checking DNA from people arrested for crimes with DNA samples from crime scenes stored in forensic databases almost as easy as matching fingerprints. With the test, police could check on whether a person's DNA matches that found at past crime scenes while suspects are still being processed and before a decision on whether to release them on bail. A report on the fast forensic test appears in the ACS' Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal.

5 Aug 2010

Sigma-Aldrich, NHLBI and BU collaborate in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease research

Sigma-Aldrich® today announced it has entered into an agreement with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, and Boston University (BU) to develop methods to measure several potential biomarkers of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) using plasma samples from the NHLBI's Framingham Heart Study (FHS), one of the most prestigious clinical studies in medicine. Funding for the project is provided by the NHLBI to Sigma-Aldrich under a research subaward agreement with BU.

5 Aug 2010

Long-term exposure to valproate leads to bone loss: Study

Scientists are reporting a possible explanation for the bone loss that may occur following long-term use of a medicine widely used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and other conditions. The drug, valproate, appears to reduce the formation of two key proteins important for bone strength, they said. Their study, which offers a solution to a long-standing mystery, appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research.

5 Aug 2010

HF-WBI effective for patients with early stage breast cancer

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has released evidence-based guidelines to define appropriate fractionation of whole breast irradiation (WBI), finding that hypofractionated (HF) WBI is effective for many patients with early-stage breast cancer. These guidelines are published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology-Biology-Physics, the official journal of ASTRO.

5 Aug 2010