Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA articles from February 2003

Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA archives from February 2003

Phase 2 of CBER/CDER product consolidation concludes.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Commissioner of Food and Drugs Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD, has informed employees of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the agency's Consolidation Working Group has completed phase 2 of...

Surgery and trauma fellowship programs linked with better outcomes.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Trauma and surgical critical care fellowship programs are associated with improved outcomes for critically injured patients, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. Saman Arbabi,...

Dendritic cells generated by Flt3L or GM-CSF/IL-4 generate antileukemia response.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Bone marrow (BM)-derived dendritic cells (DCs) cultured in granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 4 (1L-4) have been used to generate antitumor immune responses. The...

Humans exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls in a residential community.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Blood serum concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in members of a residential community who lived near a chemical plant...

Folate/methyl deficiency causes gene methylation in rat livers.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Previous studies have established that chronic dietary insufficiency of the lipotropic nutrients choline and methionine with or without chemical...

Varicella vaccine fails to protect against infection.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An outbreak of varicella occurred at a daycare center despite high vaccination coverage of the children attending the center. "In seven studies of the effectiveness of the varicella vaccine...

Veterans Affairs appoints new research and geriatrics chiefs.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi announced the appointment of two senior healthcare leaders - the chief of research and development and the chief consultant for geriatrics and extended...

plo1(+) regulates gene transcription during the fission yeast mitotic cell cycle.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from researchers in Scotland and England, "The regulation of gene expression plays an important part in cell cycle controls. We describe the molecular machinery that coordinates...

Review outlines preclinical applications of transgenic mouse breast cancer models.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality. Given that the majority of human breast cancers appear to be due to nongenetic...

Antidepressant drug pulled in Europe.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- British regulators said January 8, 2003, that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. would voluntarily stop selling its antidepressant Dutonin in Europe. The drug, called Serzone in the United States, has been...

AstraZeneca to review distribution of anticancer drug in Japan.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- AstraZeneca PLC said January 9, 2003, it is reviewing how it dispenses a last-resort anticancer drug in Japan. The government claims the drug has been linked to 124 deaths. The drug, Iressa, was...

Xenopus embryonic cell adhesion is regulated by the small GTPase, rac.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "TGF-beta family signaling pathways are important for germ layer formation and gastrulation in vertebrate embryos and have been studied extensively using embryos of Xenopus laevis. Activin causes...

Estrogenic compound released from medical polyvinyl chloride tubing.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The compound 4-nonylphenol (NP) is released from polyvinyl chloride tubing used for medical applications and has estrogenic effects, according to a group of researchers in Japan. "In 2001, the U.S....

Report: Pennsylvania has highest rate of adults with elevated lead levels.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pennsylvania has the highest rate among 25 states studied for adults with elevated lead levels in their blood, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From...

The Doc1 subunit is a processivity factor for the anaphase-promoting complex.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from the United States, "Ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis of securin and mitotic cyclins is essential for exit from mitosis. The final step in ubiquitination of these and other...

Vancouver Indian injection drug users twice as likely as non-Indians to become HIV infected.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Indians who inject drugs in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are becoming infected with HIV at almost twice the rate of their non-Indian counterparts, the coauthor of a new study said. The study...

Some veterans to have hospital copayments reduced.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Some veterans in high-cost areas who receive treatment in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals will have their inpatient copayments reduced by 80%, effective retroactively to October 1. ...

Racism is a public health issue.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Racism may be important in the development of illness and countering it should be considered a public health issue, argues a senior psychiatrist in the British Medical Journal. Studies in the...

Health benefits of moderate drinking may not apply to African Americans.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The widely reported health benefits of drinking a moderate amount of alcohol do not extend to African Americans, according to a new study. These findings follow a widely reported January 9, 2003,...

Frequent light drinking reduces risk in men.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A 12-year study of 38,077 male health professionals found that men who drank alcohol 3 or more days per week had a reduced risk of heart attack compared with men who drank less frequently. Men who...

Stressed apoptotic tumor cells stimulate dendritic cells and induce cytotoxic T cells.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "We have previously reported that stressed apoptotic tumor cells are more immunogenic in vivo than nonstressed ones," wrote Hanping Feng and colleagues at the University of Arizona. "Using confocal...

19.2 million U.S. adults chronically affected by kidiney disease.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Eleven percent of the U.S. adult population has varying stages of chronic kidney disease, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The researchers...

Centers for Disease Control notes improved prevention of outbreaks in Cambodia.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Improving vaccine coverage and surveillance can quickly have a positive impact on measles control in Cambodia, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...

Food and Drug Administration approves new labels for hormone replacement therapies.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has instituted important new safety changes to labeling of all estrogen and estrogen with progestin products for use by postmenopausal women. These...

Many women stop combination hormone replacement therapy.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new report issued by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts (ESRX) provides new information on the difficult choices women and their physicians began facing after the Journal of the American Medical...

More children are on prescription drugs for psychiatric disorders.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The prevalence of psychotropic medication use (drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders) among children and teenagers increased by two- to threefold from 1987 through 1996, according to a new study....

Researchers characterize congenital disorder of glycosylation.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a recent report from researchers in the United States, "To increase awareness of congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG), we report the features of patients with a variety of clinical...

More than 1 in 10 pregnant women drink alcohol.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Fifteen percent of women taking part in a study in southeastern Michigan drank alcohol during their pregnancies, although most of the women report drinking only 1 drink or less each week, new research...

Unique marketing status helps ring up sales for biotech firms.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- For the last 20 years, Robert Cloud twice daily has ingested GHB, the notorious "date-rape" and rave-scene drug. "It saved my law practice," said Cloud, a Cincinnati lawyer. "It saved me from...

New drug found effective.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study conducted on 404 patients at several U.S. sites has determined that a new drug called Rasagiline effectively treats early-stage Parkinson disease. "These findings are especially important...

Predictors of virologically confirmed poliomyelitis in India, 1998-2000.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from an international group, "As we progress toward eradication of polio, a growing proportion of cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) reported are due to causes other than polio....

Rising numbers of patients seeing nonphysician clinicians.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In the decade between 1987 and 1997, the proportion of patients in the United States who visited nonphysician clinicians rose from 30% to 36%, says a new study by an Emory University health policy...

Public supports tobacco control strategies outlined by American Lung Association.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A survey of U.S. adults shows that a majority of people support the four key tobacco control strategies cited by the American Lung Association to reduce the death and disease caused by smoking. The...

Disproportionation of nitric oxide at elevated pressures can be considerable.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The amounts of NO[subscript]2 and N[subscript]2O in cylinders of compressed nitric oxide can become quite high quickly, according to calculations done by a group in Japan. "T. P. Melia's chemical...

Nitric oxide further attenuates pulmonary hypertension in Mg-treated piglets.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a model for persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), treatment with inhaled nitric oxide continued to reduce pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) in piglets receiving magnesium therapy....

Institute of Medicine names 20 areas crucial to better health care.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- To give Americans world-class health care, the government and private organizations should focus on 20 areas that could have a broad impact on patients, families and communities, the Institute of...

Requirements of the quality assurance procedures for [superscript]18F-FDG injection compared.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The quality assurance (QA) procedures for fludeoxyglucose ([superscript]18F-FDG) injection, the most commonly used positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceutical, were the focus of an article by...

A new test set for validating predictions of protein-ligand interactions.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A data set for modeling protein-ligand contacts is available from a group in Great Britain. "We present a large test set of protein-ligand complexes for the purpose of validating algorithms that...

Clarification issued on food safety.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- As a result of media coverage of the January 3rd edition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), consumers may be confused about the bacterium...

Rising cost of cigarettes may help smokers honor New Year's resolution to quit.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Research shows cigarette price hikes and antismoking legislation have had positive impact on quitting rates More than ever, a significant number of Americans resolved to ring in a smoke-free New...

High school drug testing program dramatically reduces drug use.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A first-of-its-kind scientific study has found that student athletes at a high school with a mandatory, random drug-testing policy reported fourfold lower illicit drug use and threefold lower...

CDC reports on blood safety monitoring.(Brief Article)
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Since 1998, CDC has collaborated with approximately 140 federally funded hemophilia treatment centers, through the Universal Data Collection (UDC), to monitor blood product safety. In addition to...

Food and Drug Administration revises definition of the term "no residue" animal drug regulations.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a final rule that revises the definition of "no residue" in the new animal drug regulations to mean that no residue is detected with an approved...

Researchers characterize Golgi retention motif of Rift Valley fever virus glycoprotein.
February 2, 2003... 2003 FEB 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "As Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus, and probably all members of the family Bunyaviridae, matures in the Golgi apparatus, the targeting of the virus...

Food and Drug Administration establishes task force on consumer health information for better nutrition.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Mark B. McClellan, MD, has announced the formation of an internal FDA task force that will develop scientific guidance for establishing standards for...

Sequence diversity found among N. meningitidis 16S rRNA genes.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers from the United States report, "We investigated the diversity of the primary sequences of 16S rRNA genes among Neisseria meningitidis strains (Men) and evaluated the use of this approach as...

Streptogramin resistance found among Enterococcus isolates in meat in Washington, DC.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "The prevalence of streptogramin resistance genes in enterococci recovered from retail poultry in the Greater Washington DC area was examined....

Tumor regression mechanisms by IL-13 receptor-targeted cancer therapy clarified.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "IL-13 cytotoxin, composed of IL-13 and a truncated form of Pseudomonas exotoxin, targets IL-13R-overexpressing tumor cell lines in vitro and in vivo. To reveal the molecular mechanism of IL-13...

Elderly dietary supplement users may not need them.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- More than half of all Americans ages 65 years and older took a multivitamin, an extra dose of calcium, or a more exotic substance like ginkgo biloba or shark cartilage in 2002, hoping to maintain or...

Nipah virus infection - an emerging paramyxoviral zoonosis.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "In 1998, an outbreak of acute encephalitis with high mortality rates among pig handlers in Malaysia led to the discovery of a novel paramyxovirus named Nipah virus. A multidisciplinary investigation...

Abortion pills account for 6% of U.S. abortions.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Doctors used pills such as RU-486 to perform about 6% of abortions in the first several months after the controversial drug was approved in the United States, a new study says. The study, published...

Centers for Disease Control director announces new executive leadership team.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Julie Gerberding announced her executive leadership team during a meeting with CDC employees at the main headquarters on Clifton Road...

Former WebMD executive producer joins NewsRx.(Dominique Walton Brooks)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A former WebMD executive producer and medical editor has joined Atlanta-based NewsRx, along with three board-certified editors. Dominique Walton Brooks, MD, with WebMD until 2001, will serve as...

National Institutes of Health releases landmark autoimmune disease research plan.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a comprehensive multidisciplinary, multi-agency research plan for autoimmune disease that the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association (AARDA) is...

Expression of ABC metal transporter by C. diphtheriae protein dependent on Mn[superscript]2+.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "The DtxR protein is a global iron-dependent repressor in Corynebacterium diphtheriae that regulates transcription from multiple promoters. A search of the partially completed C. diphtheriae genome...

Dual-specificity phosphatases studied as targets for antineoplastic agents.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from the United States, "Dual-specificity protein phosphatases are a subclass of protein tyrosine phosphatases that are uniquely able to hydrolyze the phosphate ester bond on both a...

Researcher investigates cell proliferation control.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "The ability of intercellular communication and the basement membrane to revert the phenotypic behavior of malignant cells suggests that such cells can be tuned to behave more benignly," researchers in...

Dendritic cell vaccine shows promise against EBV-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a team of researchers from Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, and England, "Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a common neoplasm in Southeast Asia, is EBV-positive and expresses a limited...

SNDA submitted to FDA for Levaquin 5-day treatment of CAP.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., announced it is seeking marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a 5-day, once-daily regimen for Levaquin (levofloxacin)...

Adverse interactions between herbal medications and analgesic drugs summarized.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from the United States, "The use of herbal supplements in the U.S. has increased dramatically in recent years. These products are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration...

Company asks FDA to reactivate INDA for IL-12.(Food and Drug Administration )(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ribapharm, Inc., (RNA) announced that it has applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reactivate the investigational new drug (IND) application to initiate human clinical trials for...

Toxicity of carbonyl iron and sodium iron EDTA compared with ferrous sulfate in rats.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, exposures to excessive doses of iron supplements still occur in children less than 6 years of age. Since 1998, there has been one death...

New accreditation program announced for human research trials.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The nation's leading advocates for quality in health care, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), have formed...

Group questions FDA's ability to conduct a complete review of transgenic fish.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- It is unclear whether the approach currently being used by U.S. government regulators gives them the tools to effectively evaluate environmental issues surrounding transgenic (genetically modified)...

Proteins restrict ECB-dependent transcription to M/G1 phase of the cell cycle.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Two homeodomain proteins, Yox1 and Yhp1, act as repressors at early cell cycle boxes (ECBs) to restrict their activity to the M/G1 phase of the cell...

Anorexigen-associated valve disease evaluated by echocardiography.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Of 20 patients with Food and Drug Administration criteria for valve regurgitation by transthoracic echocardiography and of 13 by transesophageal echocardiography, greater than or equal to90% had...

Researchers determine sources of nosocomial Acinetobacter baumannii bacteremia.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Spain, "Using a repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR (REP-PCR), we genotypically characterized strains causing nosocomial Acinetobacter baumannii infections and analyzed the...

Omnicell, ePlus agree on financing program for government.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Omnicell, Inc., (OMCL) has announced a financing program for federal government automation system leases, including Veterans Administration (VA) Healthcare System facilities, with ePlus Government,...

FDA advisory committee recommends use of Coreg, based on CAPRICORN study.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced that the Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unanimously supported the use of the beta-blocking agent Coreg...

Paxil ad suit denied class action status.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A U.S. federal judge has refused to grant class-action status to a lawsuit filed against GlaxoSmithKline over the marketing of its antidepressant Paxil. Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer of U.S. District...

Vaccine makers' protection will be eliminated, Republicans say.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Republicans say they will reverse several favors to special interests in the Homeland Security law, including a much-criticized provision to limit lawsuits against vaccine makers. House and Senate...

Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte-binding ligand mutation alters receptor specificity.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Government researchers in the United States have provided new information on erythrocyte binding by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. "Recognition of human erythrocytes by Plasmodium...

Justice joins suits over improper billing.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Justice Department has joined whistleblower lawsuits accusing two hospitals of improperly charging Medicare millions of dollars for procedures involving unproven cardiac devices. The...

Rising cesarean rate is cause for alarm, say nurse-midwives.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) has called upon all obstetric providers to offer thorough information on the impact of all birth options to the mother during prenatal consultations. ...

Medical devices safe, but could be safer with better regulation.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Johns Hopkins infection control experts who in 2002 traced the source of a bacterial infection in 32 patients to three defective bronchoscopes say more rigorous regulation and faster recall of the...

Food and Drug Administration finds patients often get requested drugs.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Request a medication, and a doctor usually hands over a prescription - half the time for a drug a patient sought after seeing it advertised, says a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) survey of...

Development of real-time fluorescence PCR assay to detect diphtheria toxin gene.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers from the United States report the development and evaluation of "a real-time fluorescence PCR assay for detecting the A and B subunits of diphtheria toxin (tox) gene. When 23 toxigenic...

UAB selected to develop terror response messages.(University of Alabama )
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has been selected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to participate in a year-long project to develop messages for dissemination...

Medarex files IND for MDX-070, fully human anti-PSMA antibody candidate.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medarex, Inc., (MEDX) announced that it has filed an investigational new drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to initiate phase I/II clinical trials of MDX-070, a...

Simvastatin attenuates smooth muscle proliferation and pulmonary hypertension in rats.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease is characterized by abnormal proliferation of vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells, leading to occlusion of pulmonary arterioles, pulmonary hypertension,...

Food and Drug Administration temporarily halts some gene therapy trials.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a precautionary measure, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has placed on "clinical hold" all active gene therapy trials using retroviral vectors to insert genes into blood stem cells. ...

Clozaril receives first indication to reduce risk of suicide.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The antipsychotic drug Clozaril has received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) first indication for reducing the risk of recurrent suicidal behavior in people with schizophrenia or...

FDA proposes new warning on nonoxynol 9.(Brief Article)
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new warnings labels for over-the-counter contraceptive drugs that contain the spermicide nonoxynol 9. The warning would state that vaginal...

Health care unions want delay on vaccinations.
February 9, 2003... 2003 FEB 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Citing safety concerns, America's two largest health care unions want a delay in smallpox vaccinations. But the Bush administration said it will move ahead as planned, with inoculations set to begin in...