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Pharmacy Interventions Shown to Boost Meds Adherence
4 April 2016. Actions by community pharmacists and other customer-assistance programs at Walgreens pharmacies were shown to improve customers’ adherence to medications and reduce their health care costs. Results of the study conducted by health analysts at Walgreens appear in the 1 April issue of the journal Population Health Management. The research team led by Michael…
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Intrexon Spin-Off Developing Type 1 Diabetes Therapy
4 April 2016. A new subsidiary of the synthetic biology company Intrexon Corp. is creating a pill for people with type 1 diabetes to stop the disease’s damage in its early stages. The enterprise, known as Intrexon T1D Partners LLC, is a joint venture between Intrexon, in Germantown, Maryland, and White Rock Capital Partners a…
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Gene-Editing Therapy Advances for Rare Immune Disorder
1 April 2016. A key committee of the European Medicines Agency recommends approval of treatments for a rare children’s immune disease that uses edited genes as therapy. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, or CHMP, of the European Medicines Agency at its March 2016 meeting recommended approving Strimvelis by GlaxoSmithKline to treat adenosine-deaminase-deficient…
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On-Demand Pharma Manufacturing System Developed
1 April 2016. Chemical engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology created a compact manufacturing system that produces small quantities of pharmaceuticals as needed. The system developed in the MIT labs of Alan Myerson, Klavs Jensen, and Timothy Jamison is described in the 31 March issue of the journal Science (paid subscription required). Making drugs at…
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Foundation Supporting ALS Progression Model Study
31 March 2016. A study to validate computer models that predict progression and survival of patients with ALS is underway by a bioinformatics company and biopharmaceutical developer. The 3-year project is funded by a grant of nearly $500,000 from ALS Association in Washington, D.C. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease,…
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Drug Shown Effective With Stubborn Rheumatoid Arthritis
31 March 2016. A late-stage clinical trial shows a small-molecule drug reduces pain and inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, who stopped responding to earlier protein treatments. A report of the study testing the drug baricitinib, made by Eli Lilly & Company that sponsored the trial, appears in today’s issue of New England Journal of…
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Crowdsourcing Yields Heart Disease Algorithm
30 March 2016. Two financial analysts are the winners of a data science competition to write an algorithm that quickly analyzes MRI images of a person’s heart suspected of cardiac disease. The winning algorithm, by Qi Liu and Tencia Lee, was submitted in the second Data Science Bowl, put on by consulting company Booz-Allen Hamilton…
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Exome Profiles Tapped for Precise Cancer Therapies
30 March 2016. Informatics and genomics researchers at University of Colorado in Denver designed an automated system that matches genetic variations with FDA-approved cancer drugs. The team led by oncology and informatics professor Aik Choon Tan published its findings yesterday (29 March) in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association; paid subscription required. Tan and…
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Electronic Patch Offers Pain Relief, Cuts Medication Use
29 March 2016. A study of customers using an electronic patch to relieve chronic pain, shows the patch relieves muscular and skeleton pain over 6 months, enabling its users to reduce their need for pain drugs. The study was done by BioElectronics Corp. in Frederick, Maryland, developer of the device, which expects to present the…
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Wide Variation Found in Consumer Blood Tests
29 March 2016; updated. Researchers at a New York medical center found some wide differences in results from commercial blood tests marketed to consumers, with samples from 60 healthy adults. The team led by Mount Sinai Medical Center bioinformatics professor Joel Dudley and genomics professor Eric Schadt published their findings yesterday (28 March) in Journal…