Category: Regulations
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Many Large Clinical Trials Remain Unpublished
Medical researchers at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill found some three in 10 clinical trials having 500 or more participants remain unpublished, with results from the vast majority of unpublished studies not made available on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. government’s database. Findings from the team led by emergency medicine professor Timothy Platts-Mills were reported…
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Trial Underway Testing Genetic Disease Stem Cell Therapy
A clinical trial is underway testing a therapy based on a patient’s own stem cells to treat childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CCALD), a rare genetic disease affecting mainly boys. The trial began treating the first of an expected 15 patients testing the therapy made by bluebird bio, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Paris, France.…
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Clinical Trial Tests Ultrasound Device to Boost Stroke Drugs
A clinical trial found an ultrasound device safe for ischemic stroke patients and helpful for many of these patients in dissolving blood clots in their brains. Researchers from University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, with colleagues from University of Alabama-Birmingham and medical centers in Germany, tested the device in an intermediate-stage trial with 20…
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Network Analysis Shows Drug Resistant Infection Factors
Operations researchers and computer scientists at University of Maryland in College Park and American University in Washington, D.C. identified interpersonal network interactions that help spread antibiotic resistant infections through a hospital. Maryland business professors Sean Barnes and Bruce Golden, with American University information technology faculty Edward Wasil, published their findings earlier this month in the…
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Panel Recommends Steps for Sharing Patient Trial Data
A study group of academics and pharmaceutical industry experts recommends expanding access to data from clinical trials, including data on individual participants, under tight protocols and conditions.
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Tighter Home Weatherizing Standards Can Save $33 Billion
Weatherizing U.S. homes to tighter international standards can save up to $33 billion in energy bills each year, according to calculations by engineers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California, part of the U.S. Department of Energy. The team led by environmental engineer Jennifer Logue published its findings in this month’s issue of the journal…
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High Speed Internet in Cars Found Distracting to Drivers
Psychologists and engineers at University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada found adding high speed Internet connections to cars creates potential distraction risks to drivers, even when used with hands-free voice-controlled devices. The team led by Toronto psychologist Ian Spence published its findings in the September-October 2013 issue of the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology (paid subscription…
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Clinical Trial of ALS Stem Cell Therapy Begins Treatments
The first two of up to 15 patients received their first injections of stem cells to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in an intermediate-stage clinical trial at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Emory University in Atlanta. The study is testing stem cell treatments made by Neuralstem, a biotechnology company…
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Research Aims to Standardize, Improve Medication Labels
A study by Northwestern University’s medical school in Chicago will test new methods for physicians to write prescriptions and pharmacists to interpret those instructions for labels on drug containers. The pharmaceutical company Merck is funding the project, with participation from the drug store chain Walgreens and Alliance of Chicago community health centers. Previous research at…
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Early Clinical Trial Shows RNA Therapy Lowers Cholesterol
A clinical trial by the biopharmaceutical company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts shows that one dose of a drug made from interfering ribonucleic acid (RNA) cuts LDL, or bad, cholesterol levels more than a placebo. Results of the study, conducted with colleagues from University of Texas-Southwestern in Dallas and medical centers in the U.K., appear…