Category: Regulations
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Walgreens App Improving Customer Loyalty, Health Outcomes
Abhi Dhar, chief technology officer for electronic commerce at the Walgreens drug store chain, says the company’s mobile app helps build stronger connections with its customers, which is paying off in more customer loyalty and more medication adherence. Dhar described the Walgreens mobile app today at the mHealth + Telehealth World Congress meeting in Boston.…
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Safety Concerns Halt Celgene Leukemia Drug Trial
The biopharmaceutical company Celgene in Summitt, New Jersey is stopping a late-stage clinical trial of its cancer drug lenalidomide to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia due to the higher death rate of patients taking the drug. Lenalidomide is a small-molecule compound that regulates the immune system and marketed by Celgene under the brand name Revlimid. The…
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Health IT Group Documenting Medical Automation Results
HIMSS, an organization in Chicago promoting information technology in health care, is collecting case studies of automation to show its impact on medical practice and health care outcomes. The group unveiled the program, named the Health IT Value Suite, today at a press conference in Washington, D.C., although the collection is not yet available to…
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Food Industry Establishes Traceability Research Center
The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago unveiled its Global Food Traceability Center to conduct research and develop best practices to identify sources of health problems related to food products. The organization says there currently is no single group that brings together all industry stakeholders to collaborate on finding solutions to these problems. The…
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Roche Advanced Skin Cancer Drug Approved in Europe
The global pharmaceutical company Roche says its drug vismodegib, marketed under the name Erivedge, received conditional approval in Europe as a treatment for adults with advanced cases of basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer. Approval for the the drug, taken once a day in capsule form, is limited to cases of basal cell carcinoma that metastasize,…
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Early Trial Shows Safety, Action of RNA Scar Treatment
RXi Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company in Westborough, Massacusetts reports an early-stage clinical trial of its treatment for skin scarring shows the therapy is safe and generates the desired chemical response in the body. The trial is testing RXI-109, the company’s therapy based on RNA to treat hypertrophic scarring and keloids associated with skin trauma. RXi’s…
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Crowdsourcing Can Aid Health Research, but Guidelines Needed
Researchers from the medical and business schools at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia evaluated crowdsourcing as a research tool in health care, and found it has potential to improve quality and lower costs of studies, but ground rules are needed for the technique. Findings from the team led by Penn emergency medicine professor Raina Merchant…
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US, Europe Regulators Give Alzheimer’s Model Positive Marks
A computer model simulating the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in clinical trials received favorable comments from U.S. and European health regulatory agencies. The Disease Model of Mild and Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease was developed by the Coalition Against Major Diseases, an initiative of the Critical Path Institute in Tucson, Arizona. The model, says the institute, simulates…
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Health Records Exchanges Grow, but Sustainability a Question
Researchers at University of Michigan, Harvard University, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found larger numbers of U.S. hospitals and doctors taking part in electronic health records exchanges — services that store patient records for access as needed by different health care providers — but their funding after this year remains in doubt. The…
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FDA Approves Maintenance Drug to Treat Opioid Dependence
Orexo AB, a pharmaceutical company in Uppsala, Sweden says it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market in the U.S. its drug Zubsolv for the treatment of opioid dependence, such as from prescription pain killers. FDA, says the company, approved the drug as a maintenance treatment — a substitute for addictive…