Friday Breaking News 22 July 2011

1. AstraZeneca announced that FDA has approved new medicine BRILINTA (Ticagrelor) tablet for use in the US. Brilinta has been shown to reduce the rate of a combined endpoint of CV death, MI or stroke compared to clopidogrel. The difference between treatment was driven by CV death and MI with no difference in stroke. Brilinta has been studied in ACS in combination with aspirin. Maintenance doses of aspirin above 100 mg decreased the effectiveness of Brilinta. Brilinta, like other antiplatelet agents, can cause significant sometimes fatal bleeding.


2. In a first for European drug research, scientists have launched a clinical trial of an anti-HIV biotech medicine produced using genetically modified tobacco- a plant better known for ruining human health. Monoclonal antibody is being tested in a small study involving 11 healthy women in Britain. It is designed for use as a vaginal microbicide to prevent HIV transmission during sex. If the phase 1 study is successful, large trials will follow. Researchers hope the new antibody, P2G12, will be combined with others in a microbicide offering broad protection against HIV/AIDS. At the moment, antibody drugs such as Roche's cancer treatments Herceptin and Avastin are produced in cell cultures inside stainless steel tanks. When using tobacco, production costs would be at least 10 times lower than using conventional bioreactors. Some large companies have been looking at ways to make complex protein drugs in plants but molecular farming has yet to deliver its first commercial product. The closest is a Gaucher disease drug from Israel's Protalix BioTherapeutics and Pfizer, which is produced in a culture of carrot cells-rather than in whole plants and has been filed for approval. Bayer is also conducting research in the US on tobacco based treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.


3. Eli Lilly and Abbot's sales increased about 9% for existing products. Now, Eli Lilly have 70 drugs in clinical trial phase.


4. CocoPMS, is a special chocolate is intended to address the grievances PMS. Among these are pain and cramping in the abdomen, headache and emotional disorders in some women. Each pack is sold at a price of chocolate may vary in size, but very expensive range that is between 7.5 and 30 pounds, or about Rp 103,000-413,000. Efficacy is of course not merely a natural ingredient derived from brown in general, but has been modified and given the addition of two anti-inflammatory compound that is Chasteberry fruit extract and bilberry. CocoPMS is not the only unique chocolate made by Xan Confection, CocoPreggers reserved for women who want to quickly get a baby.


5. Recall mouthwash Oral-B brand from the market a few days ago. PT P&G will refund the full money consumers who have already bought the products, about RP 20,000-Rp 30,000. P&G Indonesia has attracted 80,000 bottles of Oral-B in the country. Withdrawal of this product after the Colombian health authorities found levels of harmful bacteria in the Oral-B.


6. MSD (Merck & Co., Inc.,) and China’s Simcere Pharmaceutical Group announced the signing of a framework agreement to establish a joint venture focused on serving China’s rapidly expanding health care needs by providing significantly improved access to quality medicines in major therapeutic areas. The initial focus of the partnership will be branded pharmaceutical products for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Specifically, in the area of cardiovascular disease, the partnership will offer a combined portfolio of selected medicines from both companies, including ZOCOR (simvastatin), COZAAR (losartan) and RENITEC (enalapril) by Merck and XINTA (levamlodipine) and SHUFUTAN (rosuvastatin) by Simcere. In metabolic disease area, the partnership will work to maximize access in China to sitagliptin, a DPP-IV inhibitor for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is increasingly recognized as a significant public health threat in China.


7. A protein that normally coats sperm that swim to an egg may contribute to infertility if the protein is missing. About 20 percent of men may have a gene mutation that leads to an absence of the key protein. Of 500 Chinese couples who were attempting to bear a child, birth rates were 30 percent lower among couples in which the male had the gene mutation. The finding could lead to a test that screens for the problem, which could be resolved by methods such as having sperm implanted directly into the uterus.


8. FDA approved once-daily Mesalamine for UC Remission Maintenance, Shire PIc’s once-daily, delayed-release mesalamine formulation (Lialda) for the maintenance of remission in patients with ulcerative colitis. Lialda is available as delayed-release tablet containing 1.2 g mesalamine. For the induction of remission in patients with active, mild to moderate ulcerative colitis, the recommended dose is 2 or 4 tablets taken once daily with a meal. The recommended dose for the maintenance of remission of ulcerative colitis is 2 tablets taken once daily with a meal.


9. The perception by teenagers and young adults that heavy cigarette smoking is a high risk activity has declined in many states.


10. Scientists have identified seaweed as a rich new potential source of heart healthy food ingredients. Seaweed and other “macroalgae” could rival milk products as source of these called “bioactive peptides”. Almost 100 scientific studies conclude that some seaweed proteins work just like the bioactive peptides in milk product to reduce blood pressure almost like the popular ACE inhibitor drugs.


11. Morgelon is one of the strange skin disease whose symptom feeling something like insect walking under the skin. The cause and the treatment of this disease are still unknown.


12. New study from MIT shows treating male mice with estrogen dramatically lowers their rates of stomach cancer-specifically, cancers caused by the H.pylori. They are working on treatment that mimics estrogen’s cancer-suppressing effects. Gastric cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, and people infected with H.pylori are much more likely to develop gastric cancer than uninfected people.


13. Chinese medicine could treat Parkinson’s. researchers at Hong Kong Baptist University said Gouteng, a traditional Chinese herb used to treat hypertension, helped patients better communicate and made them less prone to depression and sleeping difficulties. The condition is usually treated with a drug called levodopa, which the brain converts into dopamine to relieve the symptoms, but it can also cause nausea and hallucinations. Patients who took Gouteng together with levodopa experienced fewer side effects.


14. Researchers have found that people who didn’t take low-dose aspirin regularly increase 63% risk of getting heart attack compare to those who took low-dose aspirin regularly for whole life.