Medical comms - Articles
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network. In today's edition (see it in full) we report on CD40:CD40L. Traditionally a target for autoimmune/transplant therapeutics, we highlight a study supporting the development of blockers of CD40:CD40L as candidate treatments of Alzheimer's disease. We also highlight a new oncology candidate in development by Lorus Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Oncology): Locus Pharmaceuticals about to enter the clinic with novel cell cycle r…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (access DailyUpdates 15th June, 2006 here) Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Oncology): CuraGen and TopoTarget to test the promising combination of HDAC inhibition and retinoic acid receptor activation in patients with solid tumors The histone deacetylase inhibitor class of therapeutics represents a highly exciting approach to cancer. Merck's ZOLINZA (SAHA; vorinostat) and Gloucester Pharmaceuticals' Depsipeptide (FK228) lead this class however . Both candidates are evaluated in our fea…
Administering treatment in community oncology units achieves results that match those of specialist centres, according to the MABEL study; and phase III trials in the US and Europe are now focusing on investigating Erbitux as a first-line therapy option for mCRC. Fortnightly regimen could make life eas…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (June 12th, 2006 - access this edition) Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Metabolic Disorders): Metabolex announce phase II/III trial of novel insulin sensitizer Diabetes affects approximately 170 million people worldwide a figure that is increasing with the WHO predicting 300 million diabetics by 2025 (see The World Diabetes Market, 2005-2011). The alone has 20.8 million people suffering with dia…
Welcome! Breakthroughs in our understanding of the Ubiquitin system are increasingly being routed towards clinical applications. Targeting Ubiquitin for Drug Discovery and Development conference has assembled leaders from industrial and academic research to discuss the state of the art and prospects…
Todays Headlines from across the DailyUpdates network (9th June 2006) Breaking News (from DailyUpdates-Infectious Diseases): Merck wins the race for HPV vaccine approval in the US HPV is the most commonly diagnosed viral sexually transmitted disease in the and , with conservative annual incidence estimates of 5.5 million in the alone. Over 100 types of HPV, causing a variety of diseases, have been identified. It is believed that 50-75% of HPV infections involve high-risk HPV types, leading to approximately 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer and 232,000 deaths worldwide each year. Treatment options are limited, with no k…
DailyUpdates 31st May: Today's edition of DailyUpdates focuses on a controversial area of neurotransmission: opioids, cannabinoids and their overlap. Our featured press release is from Allon Therapeutics and announces further progress on their novel approach to neurodegenerative disorders. Read on for an overview or visit today's edition of DailyUpdates hereCannabinoids and opioids - their intereaction in the modulation of pain: Canna…
DailyUpdates 2nd June: In today’s edition of DailyUpdates we highlight exciting new data on the potential use of the antihypertensive, losartan as a modulator of insulin release and production and hence a directly acting therapeutic for the treatment of diabetes. This supplements additional beneficial activity resulting from bloo…
DailyUpdates 6th June: As ASCO continues in full swing, we again focus on oncology. Today's edition of DailyUpdates includes 10 new papers on oncology research plus a further 20 or so press releases from companies presenting at ASCO. This is of course in addition to the rest of our content from acro…
DailyUpdates 5th June, 2006: With ASCO (The American Society of Clinical Oncology) now in full swing, cancer is not surprisingly the focus of today's news section and out of the 20 or so press releases featured we highlight and announcement by Cell Genesys describing the development of their GVAX v…
In December 2005, the New England Journal of Medicine published the first results of the CATIE (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness) (1). The 18-month, double-blind study, funded by the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), compared an older and much cheaper ty…
DailyUpdates 26th May, 2006: As our daily trip around the drug discovery world continues we hit Friday with some revealing information on sepsis and new phase 3 data on Wyeth's antidepressant desvenlafaxine. Read on for more about these highlight on visit today's edition of DailyUpdates for more on these advances or any of the other 50+ items featured todayDefining the problem of sepsis: Sepsis, a complex and rapidly progressing d…
DailyUpdates 30th May: As the drug discovery sector returns after various public holidays around the world, we too return with another edition of DailyUpdates. Amongst the 60 or so features today, we highlight work at Kane Biotech conducted in an attempt to reduce the major problem of catheter infec…
Ventricular Fibrillation and Atrial FibrillationEmerging Antiarrhythmics in the Context of Current Devices, Interventions and Pharmacological Agents Although ventricular and atrial fibrillation represent the most common cardiac arrhymias and are associated with amongst the highest rates of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, treatment options are suboptimal. New opportunities are however approaching the market, notably Cardiome’s RSD1235, paving…
DailyUpdates 25th May, 2006: Today both featured items from DailyUpdates focus on autoimmune disease and remarkably neither are biologics. The first, a press release from Synta announces the advancement of an IL-12/IL-23 inhibitor in development for rheumatoid arthritis and IBD; the second is a review of potassium channels as targets for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Information on this content as well as all othe…
Introduction - e-detailing, eDetailing, e-detail, eDetail, v-Detail, online detail…. Whatever you call it, there has been no escaping it over the past few years and with more people than ever who are connected with the pharmaceutical industry talking about it, this is only set to get worse…or better in my opinion! I’ve been involved in e-detailing since the heady dotcom days of 2000 and have been providing solutions for the pharmaceutical industry since then. While my frustrations with how long it has taken the industry to take full advantage of e-detailing hav…
DailyUpdates 18th May, 2006: As the antidepressant sector continues to go through a period of turbulance we report on new data for one blockbuster from this class - Lexapro. Selected for special mention from over 50 journal articles today's feature demonstrates great timing appearing at the same time as our feature - Major Depressive Disorder. Today's edition of DailyUpdates can be seen hereComparative…
DailyUpdates 19th May, 2006: Today's edition of DailyUpdates (see it in full here) carries a couple of important articles on renal disease. One loks at the outcome of patients with renal dysfunction across various acute coronary syndromes. The featured article however demonstrates the efficacy of Novartis' Benazepril in treating advanced renal diseaseBenazepril offers hope to patients with advance renal disease - Angiotensin-converting-enzym…
Without treatment, an estimated one in three women will experience an osteoporosis-related fracture during their lifetime (1). The risk of fracture can be substantially reduced by oral nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates such as alendronate (Fosamax) and risedronate (Actonel). However, although these are widely prescribed, they are not widely adhered to by patients. At least half to three quarters of women stop treatment within one year (2). Reasons for poor adherence are generally ascribed to inconvenience and, in part, to upper gastro-intestinal (GI) side effects which are thought to affect around one in five. Dosing is complicated. Tablets have to…
DailyUpdates 15th May, 2006: Amongst the 50 or so papers and press releases featured today two focusing on VEGF jump out as being of especial interest. The first, a paper published by Stanford University, reports on the anti-cancer activity of an oncolytic virus in combination with gene therapy. The…