Tag: pharmaceuticals
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FDA Approves Type 2 Diabetes Drug, Orders More Studies
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday the drug canagliflozin, taken in tablet form to improve control of blood glucose by adults with type 2 diabetes. Canagliflozin is marketed under the name Invokana by Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Raritan, New Jersey, a division of Johnson & Johnson. Mary Parks, who directs FDA’s metabolism…
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Recommended Heart Failure Meds Save Lives, and Maybe Money
Medical researchers at University of California in Los Angeles found medications recommended in national guidelines for heart failure are cost-effective in saving patient lives and could also provide financial savings for the national health care system. The findings of the team led by Gregg Fonarow, director of the cardiomyopathy center at UCLA, appear in the…
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Third Rock Closes $516M Health Care Venture Fund
Third Rock Ventures in Boston and San Francisco raised $516 million for its Fund III to invest in new health care enterprises. Wth the fund, the company plans to support up to 16 health and medicine start-ups. Third Rock aims to finance new companies offering products or services in health care with high potential impact.…
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AstraZeneca Licenses Messenger RNA Therapy Technology
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca based in London is licensing genomic technology from Moderna Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts to develop treatments for heart disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer. The five-year deal has potential payout to Moderna of $420 million. Moderna Therapeutics harnesses messenger RNA, nucleic acids related to DNA that leave the cell…
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Clinical Trial to Test Stroke Hemorrhage Treatment
A clinical trial at University of Nottingham and other sites in the U.K. will test the drug tranexamic acid as a treatment for hemorrhaging in the brain caused by a stroke. The trial is funded by a £2.6 million ($3.9 million) grant from the Health Technology Assessment Programme of the U.K.’s National Institute for Health…
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AstraZeneca Consolidates Research in U.K. and U.S.
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will consolidate its research operations at three main hubs in its U.K. home base, as well as the U.S. and continental Europe. The four-year plan, which includes moving its corporate headquarters, is expected to cost the company $1.4 billion and result in a reduction of some 1,600 jobs, mainly in the…
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Grant to Fund Glucose-Sensitive Insulin Development
Case Western Reserve University’s medical school in Cleveland received a grant of almost $1 million for research to develop a fast-acting form of insulin that can respond to an individual’s glucose levels. The three-year grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust will fund the work of medical professor Michael Weiss, who…
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Merck, Luminex Partner on Alzheimer’s Screening Device
The pharmaceutical company Merck & Co and diagnostics developer Luminex Corp. in Austin, Texas will develop a device to screen patients for tests of Merck’s experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Financial terms and timetable of the deal were not disclosed. Merck is researching a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, code-named MK-8931, that inhibits an…
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University, Companies to Partner on Wound Care Sensors
Researchers at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland and Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar are collaborating on development of sensors that monitor wound dressings, starting with a product created by a spin-off company from Strathclyde. The three-year project is funded by the Qatar National Research Fund, but financial aspects of the agreement were not disclosed.…
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Patent Awarded for Lipid Treatments on Lung Infections
A researcher at National Jewish Health, a medical center in Denver, received a patent for methods using naturally occuring lipids to treat infections and inflammation in the lungs. U.S. patent number 8,367,643 was awarded last month to professor of medicine Dennis Voelker and assigned to National Jewish Health. Lipids are oil or fat molecules that…