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Andy Griffith Medicare ad prompts showdown with GOP

Veteran television star Andy Griffith appeared in a new commercial for Medicare that promotes health law changes the administration says should help seniors, such as free wellness visits and lower drug costs, U.S. News & World Report writes. "The commercial, launched on the 45th anniversary of Medicare last week, is part of a public education campaign about changes to Medicare benefits. Retirees' knowledge about the health reform law's impact on Medicare remains mixed.

5 Aug 2010

Scientists invent Global Focus microscope for tuberculosis diagnosis

A compact microscope invented at Rice University is proving its potential to impact global health. In a paper published online today in the journal PLoS ONE, Rice alumnus Andrew Miller and co-authors show that his portable, battery-operated fluorescence microscope, which costs $240, stacks up nicely against devices that retail for as much as $40,000 in diagnosing signs of tuberculosis.

5 Aug 2010

Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern attains National Cancer Institute designation

The Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center has attained National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation, an elite distinction held by only the top-tier cancer centers nationwide.

5 Aug 2010

FDA designates XOMA 052 orphan drug for Behcet's disease

XOMA Ltd., a leader in the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has designated XOMA 052, an antibody to interleukin-1 beta, an orphan drug for the treatment of Behcet's disease. As previously announced, the Committee for Orphan Medical Products of the European Medicines Agency has recommended the granting of orphan medicinal product designation for XOMA 052 for the same indication in the European Union.

5 Aug 2010

RTI Biologics second-quarter worldwide revenues in sports medicine increase 14%

RTI Biologics Inc., a leading processor of orthopedic and other biologic implants, reported operating results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010.

5 Aug 2010

Tips for healthy eating at college

For college students, the campus dining hall offers a tantalizing feast: ice-cream sundaes every night, thirty varieties of cereal and a limitless supply of french fries."It's like a smorgasborg on a cruise ship," said Cynthia Bulik, PhD, director of the Eating Disorders Program at the UNC School of Medicine. All-you-can-eat dining halls, along with changes in exercise habits, have been blamed for the "freshman 15," in which first-year students gain weight.

5 Aug 2010

Americans continue to get fatter, CDC finds

The New York Times: "Americans are continuing to get fatter and fatter, with obesity rates reaching 30 percent or more in nine states last year, as opposed to only three states in 2007, health officials reported on Tuesday. The increases mean that 2.4 million more people became obese from 2007 to 2009, bringing the total to 72.5 million, or 26.7 percent of the population.

5 Aug 2010

Acceleron's ACE-031 protein therapeutic for DMD receives FDA Fast Track designation

Acceleron Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics that modulate the growth of cells and tissues including muscle, bone, fat, red blood cells and the vasculature, today announced it received FDA Fast Track designation for ACE-031 for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a fatal neuromuscular disease in which patients suffer from the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength. ACE-031 is an investigational protein therapeutic being developed to increase muscle mass and strength.

5 Aug 2010

ArQule second-quarter net loss decreases to $8,227,000

ArQule, Inc. today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2010.

5 Aug 2010

Hospital advertising spending remains strong in Dallas region

"The weak economy has siphoned money from advertising budgets in most major industries, but local hospital advertising has remained steady, thanks to one company. Texas Health Resources, the largest hospital system in North Texas, accounted for about half of not-for-profit advertising spending last year" and "tripled its advertising spending from 2008 to 2009 with the launch of its rebranding campaign, said Steve Hanson, senior vice president for growth and development at Texas Health.

5 Aug 2010

Roche inaugurates National Infusion Site Awareness Week to promote diabetis management

Roche Diabetes Care, makers of the ACCU-CHEK portfolio of diabetes management products and services, is pleased to announce the inaugural National Infusion Site Awareness Week, Aug. 30-Sept. 5. Roche made the announcement during the 37th annual American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) conference to highlight the important role that certified diabetes educators and other health care professionals play in promoting better site management for the 400,000 people in the United States with Type 1 diabetes who use an insulin pump.

5 Aug 2010

Study links sea sponge genome sequence with first animals and cancer

The sponge, which was not recognized as an animal until the 19th century, is now the simplest and most ancient group of animals to have their genome sequenced. In a paper appearing in the August 5 issue of the journal Nature, a team of researchers led by Daniel Rokhsar of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI), report the draft genome sequence of the sea sponge Amphimedon queenslandica and several insights the genome gives into the origins of both the first animals and cancer.

5 Aug 2010

Scientists develop laser probe for early detection of oral cancer

UC Davis researchers have developed a laser probe for the early detection of oral cancer. A trial with human subjects shows that the device could also be used during surgery to locate the edges of a tumor.

5 Aug 2010

Pregnancy weight gain liked to childhood obesity: Study

Women who gain excessive weight during pregnancy have a greater chance their babies will be born too big. Scientists are trying to find whether this relationship of gaining too much weight by mother and baby is genetic and can predispose the child to be obese later in life.

4 Aug 2010

Parents of kids with autism spectrum disorders more likely to split: Study

A new study has found that couples who have a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have an 80% risk of getting divorce. The Adolescents and Adults With Autism study involved 391 families with autistic children and compared them with other families whose children were developing normally. The families were matched based on the age, sex and birth order of the child with an ASD, as well as the age, ethnicity and education of the mother.

4 Aug 2010

Detection of Alzheimer's before symptoms occur

Research is on to detect the dreaded Alzheimer's disease even before any symptoms occur. In a newly proposed diagnostic criteria developed by experts from the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association three stages of the disease viz. pre-clinical Alzheimer's, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's dementia are described.

4 Aug 2010

Fractures are major concern for U.S. high school athletes: Study

The popularity of high school sports in the United States has continued to increase over the past decade, with more than 7.5 million athletes participating in school sports during the 2008-09 academic year. A new study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital found that 95 percent of fractures required costly diagnostic imaging, including X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, and 16 percent required surgical repair.

4 Aug 2010

Discovery Laboratories reports net loss of $6.3 million for second-quarter 2010

Discovery Laboratories, Inc., a biotechnology company developing its novel, synthetic, peptide-containing surfactant and related aerosolization technologies as first in class therapies for severe respiratory diseases, today provides an update on key pipeline and business initiatives and reports financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010.

4 Aug 2010

Conceptus’ Essure procedure effective for permanent birth control

According to the recently released 2006-08 National Survey of Family Growth by the Center for Disease Control, one in four women choose permanent birth control. Conceptus, Inc. wants women to know that its Essure permanent birth control procedure has been gaining in popularity, and is a safe and effective solution used by hundreds of thousands of women worldwide.

4 Aug 2010

Nuokang's product pipeline candidates advance through SFDA review process

China Nuokang Bio-Pharmaceutical Inc., a leading China-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development, manufacture, marketing and sales of hospital-based medical products, today announced that two of its product pipeline candidates recently advanced through the next respective stages of the State Food and Drug Administration review process.

4 Aug 2010