Science and Enterprise

Month: February 2011

  • Eli Lilly, Diabetes Foundation to Fund Insulin Cell Research

    Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in New York said today they agreed to fund early-stage research to help patients with type 1 diabetes regenerate insulin-producing cells destroyed by the disease. The funding supports a three-year, $1.4 million pre-clinical research project. Type 1 diabetes, sometimes called juvenile…

  • USPTO Gives Details of New Expedited Review Process

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released more details of its program that lets patent applicants choose the speed at which their application is processed.  The program consists of three tracks, with higher fees charged for faster patent processing. USPTO plans to publish tomorrow (4 February) in the Federal Register a notice of the…

  • Ringside Test Gives Quick Concussion Diagnosis

    Researchers at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found a common test for eye movements in reading that also offers a quick way to diagnose concussions at sports events. Their findings were published online in the journal Neurology (paid subscription required). The research team evaluated the King-Devick test, designed as a test for saccadic eye movements,…

  • AstraZeneca, HealthCore Partner on Health Outcomes Research

    AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and HealthCore Inc. in Wilmington, Delaware, said today they will collaborate on real-world studies to determine how to most effectively and economically treat disease. HealthCore Inc. is the clinical outcomes research subsidiary of the health insurance company WellPoint Inc. The research is expected to include prospective and retrospective observational studies on disease states…

  • Engineers Advance Laser Welding for Bioanalytics

    A research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT) in Aachen, Germany has discovered a process to make laser welding more practical and less expensive. The most immediate applications of this advance are in miniaturized bioanalytic, i.e. lab-on-a-chip, technologies. Laser welding of plastic components has held promise, but also presented many limitations. It…

  • Survey: Workers Use Employer Health Plan for Medical Info

    Most U.S. workers covered by employer- or union-provided health plans go to those plans for medical information, according to a recent survey. The survey, conducted in October 2010 by the National Business Group on Health — an association of more than 300 large employers — had respondents from 1,538 employees at organizations with 2,000 or…

  • Drug Reduces Stroke Victim Brain Inflammation, Disability

    Researchers at the Institute for Neurological Research in Los Angeles, California report reductions in brain inflammation and neurological disabilities in stroke victims after administration of the drug etanercept. The proof-of-concept research was published in the 1 February 2011 issue of the journal CNS Drugs (paid subscription requried). Etanercept is a drug that blocks tumor necrosis…

  • Pfizer Slashes R&D Funding, Closes U.K. Research Site

    Pfizer Inc. in New York said today it plans to cut its research and development spending to keep R&D costs in line with lower expected revenues in 2012. The reductions, which Pfizer calls “significant,” include closing its research facility in Sandwich, U.K. and consolidating research operations in the northeast U.S. The company has lowered its…

  • National Lab, University to Certify Flu Screening Machine

    Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the UCLA School of Public Health in Los Angeles will test and certify a key component of the High-Throughput Laboratory Network (HTLN) to be built by HighRes Biosolutions of Boston, Massachusetts. The company will design the automated extraction and screening system for a prototype compact…

  • FDA Blocks Obesity Drug Over Cardiac Concerns

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has told Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. in San Diego, California and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited in Osaka, Japan that the agency is withholding approval of the companies’ candidate obesity management drug Contrave pending results of another clinical trial to address risks of heart disease. The companies released excerpts from…