Drug Law Weekly

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Medicare announces new payment system for inpatient psychiatric facilities

Chronic Illnesses - Report hails benefits of new approach to diabetes, asthma, and heart failure

City College of New York - Epstein-Barr virus antigen elicits anti-dsDNA and anti-Sm antibodies

Clinical Cell Culture, Ltd. - Lab equipment maker reports work on ReCell meets expectations

Colon Cancer Concern - Oncologists say newly diagnosed colon cancer patients could benefit from chemotherapy

Colorectal Cancer - Caffeinated coffee, but not decaf or tea, may have some protective effect

Conceptus, Inc. - New CPT code values provided for Essure procedure

Connetics Corp. - U.S. FDA approves Evoclin for treating acne

CryoCor, Inc. - CryoBlator approved for use in U.S. trials, CE marked in Europe

Curie Institute, Paris - Role of radiotherapy in treatment reviewed

DURECT Corp. - Company launches phase II clinical program for postoperative pain relief

Dendreon Corp. - Company achieves commercial scale of antigen for Provenge

Electro-Optical Sciences, Inc - Vision technology firm raises $9M, obtains protocol agreement for MelaFind

Emory University - Long-term immune memory cells do not develop during chronic viral infections

Emory University - Pravastatin has neutral interaction profile relative to cytochrome inhibitors

Endologix, Inc. - U.S. FDA gives conditional approval letter for Powerlink system

Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam - Patients with heart failure on coumarin should be closely monitored

FibroGen, Inc. - Data show FG-3019 improves kidney function in late-stage disease model

First Marketing - New product to shorten clinical trial stage introduced

Genzyme Corp. - Company seeks new therapeutic indication for Thyrogen

Mayo Clinic - Study finds new treatment option for moderately active ulcerative colitis

Medical Malpractice - Doctors are being encouraged to say they are sorry to avoid malpractice suits

National Inst. Biology Std. & Cntls, Hertfordshire - Inactivated vaccines for pandemic influenza reviewed

National University of Singapore - Infectious entry occurs through clathrin-mediated endocytic pathway

NitroMed, Inc. - African American heart failure trial data submitted to the U.S. FDA

Novartis - Femara gets U.S. FDA nod as post-tamoxifen treatment for early breast cancer

PRAECIS PHARMACEUTICALS INCORPORATED - Pharmaceutical company announces revenues of $1M due to Plenaxis sales

Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. - Generic drug maker announces tentative approval of restosterone gel 1%

Pfizer, Inc. - Studies show single-dose azithromycin as effective as multi-dose for infections

Ranbaxy Inc. - Pharma company files application with FDA for antiretroviral agent

Royal Philips Electronics - Blood-oxygen saturation sensor receives FDA clearance

Schering-Plough Corporation - FDA grants priority review status for brain tumor drug; EMEA application made

Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America - NDA filed for combination type 2 diabetes medication and metformin HCl

Transplant Medicine - Michigan seeks medical records in failed kidney transplant case

U.S. Food & Drug Administration - Surrogate method for predicting poliovirus vaccine efficacy developed

University of California - $30M gift from The Skaggs Institute supports new pharmacy school

University of Wisconsin - Hemagglutinin of 1918 pandemic influenza A virus confers enhanced pathogenicity

VERSAR, Inc. - Biodefense Laboratory gets BSL-3 certification under CDC/NIH requirements

Varian Medical Systems, Inc. - 3D imaging allows tumor targeted scan for radiotherapy with linear accelerators

Vical Inc. - Plasmid DNA vaccine protects against aerosolized anthrax spores