Medicine

November 5, 2009 -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced contract awards for up to 120,000 treatment courses of intravenous (IV) antiviral drugs to help treat hospitalized 2009 H1N1 influenza patients.

Patients hospitalized with 2009 H1N1 influenza are evaluated to determine if antiviral drugs will be useful; some patients are not able to take the drugs that are currently available as pills or liquid and may benefit from intravenous antiviral medications.    » read more »

Executive Order gives public health director clear authority to respond as needed

Nov. 5, 2009 -- (Salem) - Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski today issued Executive Order 09-17 to grant the state’s public health director, Dr. Mel Kohn, additional authority to respond proactively to pandemic H1N1 influenza. By issuing the order now, Governor Kulongoski has provided Dr. Kohn with the ability to implement quickly public health protections provided by state law.

“In order to do all we can to protect the public, I have provided Dr. Kohn with the ability to take additional steps to protect the health of Oregonians,” said Governor Kulongoski. “These measures are not needed now, but should that change, Dr. Kohn can take action without delay.”    » read more »

Findings by Scripps Research Scientists Brighten Prospects of Stem Cell Therapy for Range of Diseases

LA JOLLA, CA – October 15, 2009 A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a method that dramatically improves the efficiency of creating stem cells from human adult tissue, without the use of embryonic cells. The research makes great strides in addressing a major practical challenge in the development of stem-cell-based medicine.

The findings were published in an advance, online issue of the journal Nature Methods on October 18, 2009.    » read more »

Grants to Support On-Going Studies of Autism, Cirrhosis, and Cardiovascular Disease

October 7, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that University of California, Davis (UCD) will receive over $2 million in federal funding for four on-going research projects at their Sacramento campus.

The grants being disbursed are part of a larger release of funds authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support research endeavors at universities across the country working in cooperation with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).    » read more »

10/05/2009 -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement congratulating Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak after they won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the key mechanism in the genetic operation of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.

Blackburn is a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Greider was born in San Diego:    » read more »

WASHINGTON -- October 2, 2009 – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Friday announced that the Committee will hold a hearing on October 14 on legislation to repeal a federal antitrust exemption for health insurance and medical malpractice insurance companies.    » read more »

October 1, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - Hawaii will receive more than $11 million to fund 31 medical research projects including HIV and cancer studies, Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel K. Akaka announced today.

The $11,056,080 grant comes from the Department of Health and Human Services and is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Securing funding for research that could one day lead to the prevention and eradication of deadly diseases is a vital part of our work in Washington," said Senator Inouye. "There is great research being done by talented physicians and professors in Hawaii and I am glad that we're able to further their causes."    » read more »

September 29, 2009 -- A new RAND Corporation study outlines methods that might be used to test a novel payment system for medical care that would provide doctors, hospitals and other health providers a set fee for treating an ailment such as hip replacement surgery.

Proposals to pay health providers for so-called "episodes of care" have gained momentum during the ongoing debate about national health care reform as a strategy that could both curb medical spending and improve the quality of care.    » read more »

IRESSA (Gefitinib) receives marketing authorization for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer in Europe

01 July 2009 -- AstraZeneca announced today that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for the oral anti-cancer drug, IRESSA for the treatment of adults with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with activating mutations of EGFR-TK (epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase) across all lines of therapy. The authorisation is based on a submission package including two pivotal Phase III studies comparing IRESSA with chemotherapy, IPASS and INTEREST.    » read more »

Biogen Idec and Acorda Therapeutics announce collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize MS therapy Fampridine-SR in markets outside the U.S.

Acorda to Continue to Develop and Commercialize Fampridine-SR in the U.S. -- CAMBRIDGE, MA and HAWTHORNE, NY, July 1, 2009 – Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR) today announced that they have entered into an exclusive collaboration and license agreement to develop and commercialize Fampridine-SR, a multiple sclerosis (MS) therapy, in markets outside the United States.    » read more »

Biogen Idec Announces First Patient Enrolled in the Global Phase III Study of PEGylated Interferon Beta-1a for Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Jun. 22, 2009 -- Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) today announced enrollment of the first patient in a Phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PEGylated interferon beta-1a (BIIB017) in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). The trial, called ADVANCE, will determine the efficacy of PEGylated interferon beta-1a in reducing relapse rates in patients with RMS.    » read more »

Lyon, France and Swiftwater, Pennsylvania – June 11, 2009 – Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY), announces today it is ready to support public health efforts to respond to the emergence of the new A(H1N1) influenza strain following the decision made by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise the pandemic alert level from Phase 5 to Phase 6, the highest level of alert in the WHO global influenza preparedness plan.    » read more »

WHO raises influenza pandemic alert to phase 6

June 12, 2009, London, UK -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced it has raised the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to phase 6. As stated by the WHO, phase 6 indicates that there now is a pandemic ongoing caused by the new A (H1N1) influenza virus. The WHO has stated in their current assessment of the situation that this pandemic is currently of a moderate severity.

In addition to increasing production and supply of the anti-viral medication, Relenza (zanamivir), the company continues to focus efforts on the development of a candidate A (H1N1) adjuvanted influenza vaccine.    » read more »

First results achieved with A(H1N1) wild type strain shows significant time savings of cell-based production over egg-based manufacturing approach confirming its value in pandemic situations.

Basel, June 12 2009 - Novartis has successfully completed the production of the first batch of influenza A(H1N1) vaccine, weeks ahead of expectations.

Cell-based manufacturing technology[1] allows vaccine production to be initiated once a pandemic virus strain is identified without the need to adapt the virus strain to grow in eggs, as with traditional vaccine technologies. This advance has cut weeks off the time required to begin vaccine production.    » read more »

8 June 2009 -- As of 06:00 GMT, 8 June 2009, 73 countries have officially reported 25,288 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 139 deaths.

The breakdown of the number of laboratory-confirmed cases by country is given in the following table.

Laboratory-confirmed cases of new influenza A(H1N1) as officially reported to WHO by States Parties to the International Health Regulations (2005)    » read more »