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Autoimmune initiates steps to enhance shareholder value, retains Junewicz & Co. as its financial advisor

AutoImmune Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the exploration of a full range of strategic alternatives available to the Company in order to enhance shareholder value. AutoImmune has retained Junewicz & Co. as its financial advisor for this evaluation process.

22 Oct 2009

Media outlets examine how AIDS vaccine trial results will shape future studies

As the AIDS vaccine conference continues in Paris this week, Reuters examines how recent trials are helping researchers better understand ways to develop a vaccine that offers people protection from HIV.

22 Oct 2009

Guardian examines how Uganda's drought, food shortages affect HIV-positive people

The Guardian examines how "famine and acute food shortages" in Uganda could affect people living with HIV/AIDS. "The situation is beginning to undermine efforts to fight the virus in the north and east of Uganda, the areas most affected by the drought," according to the Guardian.

22 Oct 2009

New findings on biological cartilage may restore damaged knee joints

Damaged knee joints might one day be repaired with cartilage grown from stem cells in a laboratory, based on research by Professor Kyriacos Athanasiou, chair of the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering and his colleagues.

22 Oct 2009

Obama's success on reform hinges on health care team of 6

"President Obama's overhaul hinges on six crucial individuals and their skill at negotiating behind closed doors," The Los Angeles Times reports.

22 Oct 2009

Positive results from Isis Pharmaceuticals' ISIS 113715 Phase 2 study in type 2 diabetes patients

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced positive top-line results from a Phase 2 study evaluating the safety and efficacy of ISIS 113715 in patients with type 2 diabetes. ISIS 113715 is a novel insulin sensitizer that reduces the expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B (PTP-1B). The study showed consistent and statistically significant reductions in multiple short and intermediate measures of glucose control.

22 Oct 2009

Insurers' stocks bruised by reform efforts despite earnings

Despite strong performance on earnings sheets, stocks for companies like UnitedHealth Group have faltered amid uncertainty about the future shape of American health care, BusinessWeek reports. The flagging stocks don't reflect "the firms' profits, sales, or anything specific to UnitedHealth or its competitors. Rather, it's the health-care reform debate coming out of Washington."

22 Oct 2009

U.S. Congress extends Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, HIV care providers applaud move

Medical providers on the front lines of HIV care applaud the U.S. Congress for extending the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, helping to ensure that more than half a million low-income, uninsured, or underinsured people living with HIV/AIDS have access to lifesaving care.

22 Oct 2009

House lawmakers laud new CBO score of $871 billion, including a public option

A government-run public insurance option is in the House Democrats' health overhaul measure which the Congressional Budget Office has "scored" at $871 billion over 10 years.

22 Oct 2009

Gates Foundation awards Vanderbilt University $100,000 for developing a malaria diagnostic test

Vanderbilt University announced Oct. 21 that it has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Associate Professor of Chemistry David Wright and Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rick Haselton, titled "Coffee Ring Stain Diagnostics for Malaria."

22 Oct 2009

Women more likely than men to curb swine flu

A new American Red Cross poll shows that while concerns about exposure to the H1N1 (swine flu) virus remain high, women are more likely than men to make extra efforts to cover coughs and sneezes with tissue, wash their hands more carefully and use hand sanitizer more often.

22 Oct 2009

White House offer on malpractice finds takers; Obama tells Dems to 'focus'

Since President Obama proposed using $25 million to test new ways to handle malpractice lawsuits, suitors have been lining up, the The Asssociated Press reports. One leading idea is to appoint expert panels to sort fact from fiction in malpractice claims.

22 Oct 2009

Independent panel to rein in health costs gaining support

"As Congress grapples with how to rein in the high cost of healthcare in America, the option of outsourcing hard decisions to a new, independent commission is gaining momentum," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

22 Oct 2009

FAO plans broad reforms for World Food Security committee

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Committee on World Food Security (CFS) agreed Tuesday to "wide-ranging" reforms in an effort to make the committee the most "comprehensive international and intergovernmental platform dealing with food security and nutrition," Xinhua reports (10/20). "The CFS reforms are designed to focus the Committee's vision and role on the global coordination of efforts to eliminate hunger and ensure food security for all," according to an FAO press release (10/20).

22 Oct 2009

Excise tax in Senate health care bill violates Obama's tax pledge

Americans for Tax Reform noted today that the Senate health care bill (S. 1796) indeed uses the term "excise tax" to describe the excise tax levied on Americans who do not purchase health insurance. If signed into law, the tax would break President Barack Obama's "firm pledge" not to raise "any form" of taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year.

22 Oct 2009

Harry Reid faces public option dilemma

The Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid is facing intensifying pressure from liberal lawmakers to revive a proposed government insurance plan before health-care reform legislation reaches the Senate floor, amid signs that moderate Democrats may be warming to the idea." Although the Senate Finance Committee rejected two versions of this mechanism, "the idea has gained momentum in recent weeks as Democrats look to ensure that the policies Americans would be required to buy would be affordable."

22 Oct 2009

New partnership to create Translational Orthopedic Research Program

The creation of the Translational Orthopedic Research Program (TORP), a new partnership of Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) and its affiliate the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Spectrum Health, Orthopaedic Associates of Michigan (OAM), and the Michigan State University (MSU) College of Human Medicine, was announced today by officials of the sponsoring organizations who gathered at Van Andel Institute for the World Osteoporosis Day Summit, a meeting spotlighting local osteoporosis efforts.

22 Oct 2009

Opinion: Fighting world hunger; U.S. leadership on global issues

In a USA Today column, writer DeWayne Wickham examines the connection between hunger and global security. "Helping poor countries feed their hungry masses is not just a grand humanitarian gesture; it is good diplomacy — a refreshing change from the jingoism and dollar diplomacy of previous administrations," he writes.

22 Oct 2009