The Commonwealth Government will add two drugs for the treatment of breast cancer to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). From 1 December, exemestane (Aromasin?) and letrozole (Femara?) will be listed for the treatment of hormone-dependent early breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
If drug therapy can’t open blocked sinuses, sufferers now have a novel option. Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons have taken a page from the book of cardiology in performing a new, outpatient procedure to alleviate acute or chronic symptoms of sinusitis, an inflammation of the sinus cavities usually due to an infection.
Mayo Clinic seeks adults who are age 40 or older and have knee pain that has not responded to medicines, exercise or physical therapy for a research study. The purpose of this research study is to find out what effects (good and bad) the botulinum toxin (Botox) has on patients with knee arthritis. Eligible participants will have been diagnosed with knee arthritis that can be confirmed by x-ray.
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has opened a new clinical study using a vaccine strain of the measles virus to attack recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, a largely untreatable brain tumor. This is the second of several pending molecular medicine studies in patients using measles to kill cancer.
New data presented today from a meta-analysis* of nearly 1,300 Parkinson?s disease (PD) patients, indicate that pramipexole (Mirapexin?/Sifrol?) has a beneficial effect on depressive and motivational symptoms in PD.1 This confirms findings from previously published clinical trials,2,3,4 and is in addition to its established efficacy in controlling motor symptoms. These findings are of particular interest as mood symptoms in PD can affect up to 50 percent of the patient population.1,5 The data were presented at the 10th International Congress of Parkinson?s Disease and Movement Disorders (MDS) in Kyoto, Japan.
Trimetazidine is an effective antianginal drug that with its minimal side effect profile it has an important role to play when side effects limit haemodynamic agents and in those vulnerable to adverse effects such as one elderly – highlighted in a study conducted by Graham Jackson, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital, Cardiothoracic Centre, St Thomas? Hospital, London, UK
COPAXONE? is indicated for the reduction of the frequency of relapses in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA) announced, in conjunction with the release of the Sanofi-Aventis group’s financial results, that global in-market sales of Copaxone? in the third quarter of 2006 grew by 15% as compared to the third quarter of 2005 and reached a record of $354 million.
A research center newly created by the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) aims to put light-sensitive switches in the body’s cells that can be flipped on and off as easily as a remote control operates a TV. Optical switches like these could trigger a chemical reaction, initiate a muscle contraction, activate a drug or stimulate a nerve cell – all at the flash of a light.
The high-stakes task of designing new drugs relies on high-tech tools, especially computerized, three-dimensional simulations of proteins. Researchers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), contributing their massive computational capabilities to a collaboration with colleagues at the University of Washington (UW) and IBM, have helped to achieve the largest-ever protein-structure prediction – and completed the complex simulation in less than three hours.
GlaxoSmithKline plc [NYSE:GSK, LSE:GSK] announced results from a global Phase II study of eltrombopag, an investigational non-peptide oral platelet growth factor. In this study of 74 hepatitis C patients with thrombocytopenia, (a condition where the blood has low platelet levels) more than 95% (p< 0.001) of patients treated with the highest dose of eltrombopag (75mg) had increased platelet counts. In addition, 71% - 91% of patients in all treatment groups were able to initiate antiviral therapy with pegylated interferon-α (IFN) and ribavirin, and 65% were able to be maintained on therapy.1 Full results from this Phase II study are being presented today at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in Boston, Massachusetts.