Health News

2nd Annual Medical Affairs Leaders Forum Asia, 5th - 6th August, 2014, 
Hong Kong

Date: Mar-13-2014
2nd Annual Medical Affairs Leaders Forum AsiaAsia's pharma market is already worth more than $200 billion and is expected to grow exponentially each year going forward. The population in Asia is over 4 billion and the Asian middle class is growing very quickly. Due to factors such as rising incomes, increased government expenditure on healthcare and the growing incidence of chronic developed-world diseases associated with changing lifestyles have all significantly boosted demand in Asia.

4th Annual Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Market & Patient Access in Latin America, 19th - 20th August 2014
, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Date: Mar-13-2014
4th Annual Market & Patient Access in Latin America This two-day event will allow all participants the ability to learn about the current market access approaches which are required for each market in order for them to have greater certainty that their products will be able to deliver real value in the correct terms (cost-effectiveness/ cost-utility/ cost-benefit/ cost-minimization).

3D printing helps repair motorbike crash victim's face

Date: Mar-13-2014
Stephen Power, a 29-year-old father from Cardiff in the UK, was left with extensive facial injuries after a motorbike crash. Now thanks to pioneering use of 3D printing, surgeons were able to repair his face in a boundary-pushing reconstructive procedure that took months to plan and 8 hours to complete.The crash, which occurred in September 2012, broke both Mr. Power's arms and his right leg, both cheek bones, both eye sockets, and his upper jaw. It also fractured his skull.

Gut bacteria essential for immune cell development

Date: Mar-13-2014
A new study finds that gut bacteria play an important role in the development of white blood cells that help the body's immune system fight infection.The human body is home to thousands of species of microbes - collectively known as the microbiome - that we are increasingly coming to realize are essential to health. The highest concentration and diversity of these species is found in the gastrointestinal tract, and the colon in particular.

Anavex encouraged by scientific data confirming sigma-1 receptor agonist extends survival in ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)

Date: Mar-13-2014
Anavex Life Sciences Corp. a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel drug candidates to treat Alzheimer's, diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) and various types of cancer, has announced the findings of a research report published in the current issue of peer-reviewed scientific journal Neuroscience Letters. The Company is encouraged by the report because its results point to potential for ANAVEX 2-73 to treat ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

UK seeing significant rise in older people living and being diagnosed with HIV

Date: Mar-13-2014
A new paper published online in the British Geriatrics Society journal Age and Ageing argues that despite a year-on-year increase in the number of people over the age of 50 being diagnosed with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), there is a reluctance of healthcare professionals to offer HIV tests to older people. This results in high rates of "late presentation" and therefore significantly increased mortality.

Prescription charges are keeping people with chronic conditions off work, new UK research finds

Date: Mar-13-2014
The inability of thousands of people to afford their regular prescription medication is leading to increased sick leave and poorer performance and productivity at work, and even trouble getting to work, new research from the Prescription Charges Coalition has found.

Genes bring music to your ears

Date: Mar-13-2014
Multiple regions in the human genome are reported to be linked to musical aptitude, according to a study published in Molecular Psychiatry. The function of the candidate genes implicated in the study ranges from inner-ear development to auditory neurocognitive processes, suggesting that musical aptitude is affected by a combination of genes involved in the auditory pathway. The research was funded by the Academy of Finland.

Wishing to be another gender: links to ADHD and autism spectrum disorders

Date: Mar-13-2014
Children and teenagers with an autism spectrum disorder or those who have attention deficit and hyperactivity problems are much more likely to wish to be another gender. So says John Strang of the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, USA, leader of the first study to compare the occurrence of such gender identity issues among children and adolescents with and without specific neurodevelopmental disorders. The paper is published in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.Children between 6 and 18 years old were part of the study.

What proportion of symptomatic side effects in patients taking statins are genuinely caused by the drug?

Date: Mar-13-2014
Investigators call on drug regulators to provide clear evidence to patients on claims of drug side effects.At a time when the wider prescription of statins is under renewed public scrutiny, a substantial analysis of placebo-controlled randomised trials of statins has found that only a small minority of side effects reported by those taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs are actually attributable to them. Almost all the side effects reported in these trials "occurred anyway when patients were administered placebo", say the investigators.