-
Pain Medication Given FDA Breakthrough Tag
22 February 2016. A new drug to treat moderate to severe pain, now in clinical trials, received a breakthrough designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The drug, oliceridine, is made by Trevena Inc. in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Oliceridine addresses the same pain signals as opioid drugs that affect areas of the brain…
-
FDA Approves New Epilepsy Drug
19 February 2016. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a molecular therapy for epilepsy designed to supplement treatments for partial-onset seizures. The drug is brivaracetam, marketed as Briviact by UCB, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder where nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures with symptoms…
-
Multiple Myeloma Gene Therapy Trial Underway
19 February 2016. The biotechnology company bluebird bio began testing its experimental gene therapy for multiple myeloma in an early-stage clinical trial. The Cambridge, Massachusetts company — which spells its name in all lower-case letters — is also licensing the technology tested in the trial to the pharmaceutical company Celgene. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of…
-
Bayer Funding Studies of Honey Bee Health, Management
18 February 2016. Bayer Crop Science is seeking research ideas for improving the health of honey bee colonies in the U.S. Proposals for studies in the $1 million program addressing urgent needs highlighted by Bayer’s Healthy Hives 2020 initiative are due by 1 March 2016. Bees, which play a key role in agriculture, are facing…
-
Antibody Treatment Designed for MERS Virus
18 February 2016. The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS virus, is spreading throughout the Middle East and Asia, largely through person-to-person contacts, and with a fatality rate of 36 percent. A research team at University of Maryland, with colleagues from industry and government labs, developed antibodies from genetically-engineered cattle that protect lab mice…
-
Patch Finds Heart Problems After Holter Monitor Period
17 February 2016. A review of records of people wearing a single-use heart monitor patch found serious heart rhythm problems occurring well after the 48-hour period recommended for Holter monitors, the device used most often for ambulatory heart monitoring. Results of the study, conducted by researchers at Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, but sponsored by…
-
Vaccine Developed to Stop Synthetic Opioids
17 February 2016. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug for treating severe pain after surgery, and in some cases chronic pain, but is also highly addictive and increasingly abused, with growing numbers of overdose deaths. Researchers from Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California developed a vaccine that in lab mice prevents ingredients in fentanyl…
-
Biotech Reviewing Stanford Immuno-Stem Cell Technology
16 February 2016. A biotechnology company in Los Angeles is evaluating a technology developed at Stanford University for transferring DNA of immune system cells to a patient’s own stem cells to produce immunotherapies for treating cancer. The agreement with Stanford gives ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Ltd. an option to license the technology from the lab of immunologist…
-
Company Hosts Cancer Genome Cloud, Raises $45 Million
16 February 2016. Seven Bridges Genomics, a computational biology company, unveiled its cloud-based cancer genome data sets, in one of three pilot tests for National Cancer Institute. The Cambridge, Massachusetts enterprise also raised $45 million in its first venture funding round. National Cancer Institute, part of National Institutes of Health, aims to make the Cancer…
-
Virtual Reality Seen Helping People with Depression
15 February 2016. Individuals suffering from depression often express a high degree of self-criticism to the point it interferes with recovery from their disorder. Researchers from University College London showed in a pilot study that a virtual reality exercise could increase feelings of self-compassion and reduce the severity of depression, in some cases with enough…