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Expectations high for Obama's 'Major Address' to Congress on health reform

President Obama plans to address Congress on Wednesday, only a day after lawmakers return from their August break, to spell out in detail his vision for overhauling health care, The Associated Press reports. The move signals that "Democrats have all but given up hope for a bipartisan breakthrough by Senate Finance Committee negotiators," because that committee - the only one seeking across-the-aisle compromise - had been given a Sept. 15 deadline.

4 Sep 2009

Postpartum depression affects mother-infant relationship

The joys of motherhood for many women can also lead other new moms to experience postpartum depression and even worse - ideas for committing suicide.

4 Sep 2009

Catholics believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege: Catholics for Choice

As Congress returns from the summer recess, we hope that we will soon see an honest and productive debate on truly comprehensive healthcare reform that leads to positive changes in healthcare accessibility for women and men in the United States.

4 Sep 2009

Systematic method for improving the stability of antibodies

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have developed a systematic method to improve the stability of antibodies. The technique could lead to better biosensors, disease therapeutics and diagnostic reagents and non-laboratory applications, including environmental remediation.

4 Sep 2009

Banner Good Samaritan treats cancers and neurological disorders with the Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform

John J. Kresl, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center are now treating a wide variety of cancers and neurological disorders with highly-accurate, non-invasive, image-guided radiosurgery using the Novalis Tx(TM) radiosurgery platform from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) and BrainLAB.

4 Sep 2009

New center to study mathematical modeling of drug resistance and internention to be established at HSPH

A new center that will focus on mathematical modeling of drug resistance, seasonal infectious diseases, and intervention allocation will be established at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

4 Sep 2009

Acurox's New Drug Application discussed with the FDA

Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they met with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") on September 2, 2009 to discuss the FDA’s June 30, 2009 Complete Response Letter regarding the New Drug Application for Acurox (oxycodone HCl and niacin) Tablets CII (NDA).

4 Sep 2009

New treatment for vaso-occlusive crisis in sickle cell patients

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (GMI), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing a new class of glycobiology-based therapies for a broad range of indications, today announced that a pilot study of the company’s lead candidate, GMI-1070, is underway in sickle cell patients. The first patients in this pilot study were treated at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland in California.

4 Sep 2009

First artificial heart implant successfully performed by a AUBMC medical team

A medical team at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) has successfully performed the first artificial heart implant in Lebanon, saving the life of a 37-year-old man suffering from terminal heart failure.

4 Sep 2009

Covidien's Sleep Diagnostic business acquired by Embla

Embla and Covidien have entered into a definitive agreement under which Embla will acquire Covidien's Sleep Diagnostic business. This includes the sleep diagnostic products sold under the Sandman(TM) brand name. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Completion of the sale is subject to customary closing conditions.

4 Sep 2009

IND for Cytopia's CYT387 clears the FDA review

Cytopia Limited's Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for CYT387 has passed US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review. CYT387 is a small-molecule oral JAK1/JAK2 kinase inhibitor designed to treat various haematological disorders.

4 Sep 2009

Brown University neuroscience professor awarded EUREKA grant

Brown University neuroscience professor Gilad Barnea will receive a nearly $1.3 million, four-year federal grant toward development of a method to selectively monitor the activation of each of the five receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain.

4 Sep 2009

Also in global health news: Africa measles eradication; water, food security in South Asia; MDR-TB in Mumbai; SADC summit; U.S. Cuba embargo

WHO Regional Director for Africa Luis Gomes Sambo said Tuesday during the 59th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, that measles could be eradicated from the continent by 2020, citing an 89 percent reduction in the number of deaths caused by measles between 2000 and 2007, Angencia AngolaPress reports.

4 Sep 2009

Blue Cross Blue Shield releases The Healing Book to mark Life Insurance Awareness Month

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia kicks off Life Insurance Awareness Month by enhancing the support services already available to its group life insurance beneficiaries by offering a new book to help children who are affected by the loss of a loved one - The Healing Book: Facing the Death and Celebrating the Life of Someone You Love (written by Ellen Sabin and published by Watering Can Press).

4 Sep 2009

Two ongoing Phase 2 clinical trials of CPX-351 to be showcased

Celator Pharmaceuticals today announced that Scott Jackson, chief executive officer, is scheduled to present at the Thomas Weisel Partners 2009 Healthcare Conference in Boston.

4 Sep 2009

Communal nesting may provide evolutionary advantage for reptiles

Reptiles are not known to be the most social of creatures. But when it comes to laying eggs, female reptiles can be remarkably communal, often laying their eggs in the nests of other females. New research in the September issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology suggests that this curiously out-of-character behavior is far more common in reptiles than was previously thought.

4 Sep 2009

Results of Phase 2 rheumatoid arthritis clinical trial announced

Array BioPharma Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRY) announced its preliminary analysis of results from a study examining ARRY-162, a small molecule MEK inhibitor, in a 12-week Phase 2 clinical trial with 201 patients.

4 Sep 2009

Vaccinating women against HPV prevents breast cancer

Vaccinating women against the human papillomavirus (HPV) may prevent some forms of breast cancer and save tens of thousands of lives each year, new Australian research suggests.

4 Sep 2009

Survey reveals health plan costs to increase in 2010

According to The Segal Company’s just-completed survey of projected 2010 health plan costs, medical plan cost trends will continue to be more than four times greater than the annual increase in average hourly earnings and in sharp contrast to changes in the consumer price index for urban consumers, which have been relatively flat or negative in the past 12 months.

4 Sep 2009

Dentists recommend healthy foods for children’s oral hygiene

You wouldn’t send your children to school with a lunchbox full of candy bars, but you might be packing almost as much sugar when you send them off with some popular lunchtime classics. Considering most children brush their teeth in the morning and before bed, the sugar they put in their mouths at lunchtime could stay there for a while, and that worries some dentists.

4 Sep 2009