Health News

Genzyme receives Complete Response Letter from FDA on LemtradaTM (alemtuzumab) application

Date: Dec-31-2013
Sanofi and its subsidiary Genzyme has announced that it has received a Complete Response Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its supplemental Biologics License Application seeking approval of Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. A Complete Response Letter informs companies that an application is not ready for approval. FDA has taken the position that Genzyme has not submitted evidence from adequate and well-controlled studies that demonstrate the benefits of Lemtrada outweigh its serious adverse effects.

Don't start 2014 hungover, or worse

Date: Dec-31-2013
The AMA has urged people to take it easy when celebrating the start of the New Year.AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said that New Year's Eve was a great time to relax and have fun with relatives and friends, but warned that partygoers should avoid making the start of 2014 memorable for all the wrong reasons.Dr Hambleton said all too often celebrations were marred by people getting hurt because they, and those around them, overindulged.

World's shrinking groundwater 'needs better governance'

Date: Dec-31-2013
An eminent Australian water scientist has urged the world to take better care of its groundwater resources - or risk dangerous scarcities, economic impacts and potential conflicts in coming decades.Professor Craig Simmons, the Director of Australia's National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NGCRT) says that governments around the world need to get behind the UNESCO plan to develop a Global Framework for Action on groundwater governance, due for release shortly.

Making the body use its own defences to attack pancreatic cancer

Date: Dec-31-2013
A possible new method for treating pancreatic cancer which enables the body's immune system to attack and kill cancer cells has been developed by researchers.The method uses a drug which breaks down the protective barrier surrounding pancreatic cancer tumours, enabling cancer-attacking T cells to get through. The drug is used in combination with an antibody that blocks a second target, which improves the activity of these T cells.

Inadequate pregnancy weight gain a risk factor for infant mortality

Date: Dec-31-2013
Women who do not gain enough weight during pregnancy are at increased risk of losing their baby in its first year of life, according to a new study by researchers in the University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMD SPH). This study examined the relationship between gestational weight gain, mothers' body mass index (BMI) before and during pregnancy, and infant mortality rates.

Lactation consultant visits spur breastfeeding among women who usually resist it

Date: Dec-31-2013
In two separate clinical trials, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that periodic meetings with a lactation consultant encourages women traditionally resistant to breastfeeding to do so, at least for a few months - long enough for mother and child to gain health benefits. The results of the trials were published online in the American Journal of Public Health.

A new role for milk: Delivering polyphenols with anti-cancer activity

Date: Dec-31-2013
Polyphenols found in tea manifest anti-cancer effects but their use is limited by poor bioavailability and disagreeable taste. A new study in the Journal of Dairy Science® finds that when epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the major extractable polyphenol in green tea and the most biologically active, when diluted in skim milk or other milk complexes remains bioactive and continues to reduce colon cancer cell proliferation in culture at concentrations higher than 0.03 mg of EGCG/mL.

MRI method for measuring MS progression validated

Date: Dec-31-2013
New imaging research from Western University (London, Canada) has demonstrated that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach called quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) can be an important tool for diagnosing and tracking the progression of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and other neurological diseases. QSM provides a quantitative way to measure myelin content and iron deposition in the brain -important factors in the physiology of MS.

Monthly appointments with pharmacists improve medication adherence

Date: Dec-31-2013
Patients are more likely to take chronic medications when they meet monthly with pharmacists to coordinate medication schedules and treatments, according to a Virginia Commonwealth University study.The study, published in the November/December issue of The Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (JAPhA®), described how patient adherence and persistence with chronic medications can be improved by allowing patients to meet with a pharmacist to solve medication-related problems and synchronize prescriptions to be dispensed on a single day of the month.

New compound BYM338 could reverse loss of muscle mass in cancer and other diseases

Date: Dec-31-2013
A new antibody could dramatically boost strength and muscle mass in patients with cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sporadic inclusion body myositis, and in elderly patients with sarcopenia according to research published ahead of print in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology."Age-related loss of muscle mass is a major contributing factor to falls, broken bones, and the loss of mobility," says co-corresponding author David Glass of Novartis, Cambridge, MA, one of the compound's developers, along with first author Estelle Trifilieff, also of Novartis.