Category: Regulations
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Trial Shows Synthetic Insulin Reduces Alzheimer’s Symptoms
9 January 2015. A clinical trial shows a synthetic form of insulin delivered with a nasal spray can improve memory functions of people with mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer’s disease. Results of the study led by gerontology professor Suzanne Craft of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina appear in an advance…
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Pump Device Shown to Deliver Parkinson’s Drug
30 December 2014. A clinical trial testing a pump worn by Parkinson’s disease patients shows the device can continuously deliver drugs under the skin to treat severe forms of the disorder, which today requires a surgical implant. The pump made by NeuroDerm Ltd. in Rehovot, Israel is designed to overcome shortcomings of oral forms of…
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Early Trial Underway Testing Brain Cancer Drug
24 December 2014. Kinex Pharmaceuticals, a developer of cancer therapies, began an early-stage clinical trial of an experimental treatment for tumors of support cells in the brain. The Buffalo, New York biotechnology company says the first patient received the drug code-named KX2-361 in the trial taking place at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, also in Buffalo,…
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FDA Approves New Influenza Treatment
23 December 2014. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved yesterday a drug to treat influenza infections in adults. The treatment, Rapivab, is a small molecule drug made by BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in Durham, North Carolina. BioCryst designs and develops therapies that block enzymes involved in infectious and inflammatory diseases, with a technology that creates synthetic compounds using…
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Trial Testing Biologic Treatment for Hepatitis D
22 December 2014. An intermediate-stage clinical trial testing a biologic treatment made by Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc. shows lower hepatitis D virus levels among patients taking the treatment compared to a placebo. The San Carlos, California company says the treatment, called lonafarnib, also received orphan drug status by regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe. Hepatitis…
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Trial Testing Blood Filter Device for Hepatitis C Virus
11 December 2014. Aethlon Medical Inc. is beginning patient recruitment for an early-stage safety and feasibility study of its blood filtration device with patients in kidney dialysis who also have hepatitis C. The San Diego medical device developer plans to test the Hemopurifier device at DaVita Medical Center in Houston. Patients with kidney disease needing…
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Fewer Americans on Pain Meds, But in Risky Combinations
9 December 2014. A review of insurance claims from 2009 to 2013 shows fewer Americans taking opioid pain medications, but for longer periods than originally prescribed and in potentially dangerous combinations. Results of the review were released today in a report by the pharmacy-benefit management company Express Scripts in St. Louis, and authored by Lynne…
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AstraZeneca, Lilly Begin Alzheimer’s Drug Trial
1 December 2014. The pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company began enrolling patients in a clinical trial testing an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The intermediate and late-stage trial aims to recruit some 1,550 patients in 15 countries to test safety and effectiveness of the drug code-named AZD3293 against a placebo with patients…
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Trial Shows Engineered Antibody Relieves Psoriasis
11 November 2014. A late-stage clinical trial shows a monoclonal antibody, a type of engineered biological therapy, cleared more people of the skin condition plaque psoriasis than a placebo or a competitive treatment. The biologic drug, brodalumab, is developed by the biotechnology company Amgen and pharmaceutical maker AstraZeneca. Plaque psoriasis is the most common type…
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Child-Safe Coating Devised for Button Batteries
4 November 2014. Engineers and medical researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School developed a coating for small batteries that tests show could prevent poisoning when swallowed accidentally by young children. The team from the labs of Robert Langer at MIT and Jeffrey Karp at Brigham and Women’s Hospital…