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Gates Foundation appoints global health policy head to lead new London office

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Thursday that Joe Cerrell, who currently leads the foundation's global health policy and advocacy group, will head a new Gates Foundation office in London beginning in January 2010, the Wall Street Journal reports.

17 Aug 2009

Genetic diagnosis of embryos: Clear explanation, not rhetoric needed

In the area of genetic diagnosis of embryos, the choice of words matters as they can influence policies and perceptions, according to an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

17 Aug 2009

Florida: Confusion surrounds cost of Medicaid expansions included in reform proposals

Health News Florida reports on a flap over how much the proposed expansion of Medicaid included in some health reform proposals would cost the state of Florida. The news service examined a story published in the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

17 Aug 2009

Congressman Chaka Fattah statement on public option to reform America's healthcare system

"We must not let the conversation about healthcare reform become derailed by confusion. If real reform is to take place it must include a public option.

17 Aug 2009

Transcript: "Health on The Hill" discussion of the public plan

Mary Agnes Carey: Hello and welcome to Health On The Hill. I’m Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News. Joining me today to discuss the latest in the health reform debate is Julie Rovner of National Public Radio. Thanks for being with us, Julie.

17 Aug 2009

Nematode worm provides model of invasive cancer

A single cell in a 1-millimeter nematode worm is providing valuable new clues into cancer's deadliest behavior -- its ability to put down roots in new tissues after spreading throughout the body.

17 Aug 2009

New guidance on novel H1N1 influenza for K-12 schools

The Secretary of Health today released guidance on Novel H1N1, also known as swine flu, for elementary and secondary schools in an effort to keep kids and staff healthy and flu-free this school year.

17 Aug 2009

Alpharx completes lyophilization process for Zysolin

AlphaRx Inc. has announced that it has completed the lyophilization process for Zysolin(TM), allowing the company to proceed to clinical batch material manufacturing for human trials. This process has been solely developed by AlphaRx's scientists and the resulting formulations have been successfully tested in animal studies conducted by the U.S. Army under a Material Transfer Agreement.

17 Aug 2009

Associated Press examines use of oral polio vaccine in Nigeria

The Associated Press examines how the oral polio vaccine, "made from a live polio virus — albeit weakened," is contributing to the spread of the disease in Nigeria.

17 Aug 2009

GSK starts testing H1N1 vaccine; Opinion piece addresses U.S. role in helping developing countries procure vaccine

"GlaxoSmithKline has started testing its pandemic H1N1 swine flu vaccine in humans, and expects to start giving the results to government agencies next month, the drugmaker said on Friday," Reuters reports. The company "plans to conduct 16 different trials of the vaccine and to test 9,000 people in total across Europe, Canada and the United States," according to the news service (Deighton, 8/14).

17 Aug 2009

Align Technology settles patent litigation with Ormco

Align Technology, Inc. today announced that it has reached a settlement with Ormco Corporation (Ormco), a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation, to end all pending litigation between the parties and to begin a new strategic collaboration.

From Danaher 17 Aug 2009

Summary of key health care provisions

With so much turmoil surrounding the federal government's health care initiatives, the Federation of American Consumers and Travelers (FACT) is attempting to create a summary of key provisions. The goal is to condense incredibly lengthy and convoluted language into something which all consumers can digest so that they can then decide which way they want their legislators to proceed.

17 Aug 2009

Running and addiction

Although exercise is good for your health, extreme exercise may be physically addicting. Rats given a drug that produces withdrawal in heroin addicts went into withdrawal after running excessively in exercise wheels, according to new research. Rats that ran the hardest had the most severe withdrawal symptoms.

17 Aug 2009

The President and White House officials try to debunk end-of-life care rumors

The Hill: "Democrats seem to have a new strategy for fighting the 'death panel' charges about healthcare reform legislation.

17 Aug 2009

Medicine lessons from the Arabic world

You've heard of Louis Pasteur and George Washington Carver, no doubt. And probably Joseph Priestley, one of the founders of modern chemistry. Names like Antoine Lavoisier, John Dalton, and Amadeo Avogadro may even bring a twinkle of recognition to the eye for their famous roles in establishing chemistry as a modern science.

17 Aug 2009

Children, adolescents and headache

Family quarrels and a lack of free time can promote headaches in children. This is what Jennifer Gassmann and her coauthors concluded in their study on risk factors, which appears in the current issue of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106[31-32]: 509-16).

17 Aug 2009

New addition to the forensic toolkit

In an advance toward the first portable device for detecting human bodies buried in disasters and at crime scenes, scientists today report early results from a project to establish the chemical fingerprint of death.

17 Aug 2009

Biologist demystifies Acinetobacter baumannii

Tao Weitao, a researcher in the College of Sciences' Department of Biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio is making great strides in a project that was funded one year ago by the San Antonio Area Foundation. The professor in the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases is researching Acinetobacter baumannii, a soil-dwelling bacterium that threatens the health of military personnel in the Middle East and can also infect their family members once the soldiers have returned home following battle.

17 Aug 2009

FDA approves Extavia for multiple sclerosis

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Extavia(R) (interferon beta-1b), the first in a new planned portfolio of multiple sclerosis (MS) medicines from Novartis to help patients manage this devastating disease.

17 Aug 2009

Cord Blood America shows significantly improved balance sheet

Cord Blood America, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CBAI), the umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation company focused on bringing the life saving potential of stem cells to families nationwide and internationally, said today that its 10Q filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission for the second quarter of 2009 shows a significantly improved balance sheet.

17 Aug 2009