Soo Kee Chee, director of the National Cancer Center Singapore (NCCS) said that academic institutions are beginning to conduct clinical trials for the private sector. For example, the center is currently assisting a pharmaceutical company to arrange a trial taking place in 22 institutions in 12 countries. The NCCS is also engaged in a clinical phase III with a large Danish group, and hopes to see lead this major project.

Many collaborations between Asian and foreign companies should also appear. The director of the healthcare division in Asia Pacific by Frost & Sullivan, Simranjit Singh, said that international companies should take account of Asia in their strategic vision, not as a market or plant relocation, but as a key element of discovery new molecules. The trend has already started in Singapore, for example, the establishment by Schering-Plow Corp a unit translational medical research of several million euros. In January 2009, Abbott has also opened a research and development of 3.5 million euros, its first laboratory on Singaporean soil.

The vaccine has been tested successfully on humanized mice that were inoculated various strains of influenza, including H5N1, or avian influenza virus, which fears that it causes a deadly pandemic if it acquires at random a changing ability to be transmitted from human to human. The specificity of the vaccine is that target proteins within the virus that mutate slightly over time – thus, the inoculated organisms will also be protected against future strains.

The vaccine has yet to pass many tests before being marketed. These initial results represent a remarkable advance in the fight against a pathogen previously quite elusive. Indeed, current vaccines target surface proteins of influenza, which will tend to mutate frequently, vaccines are rapidly becoming obsolete. That’s why every year, the WHO study carefully the trends to recommend three specific strains of viruses that are then used to develop a new vaccine. If the most virulent strains do not correspond to expectations, immunization campaigns are then ineffective. In December 2008 and January 2009, for example, regional outbreaks have been reported in Japan but also in Tunisia and in several European countries.

Olivier Rascol, a member of the department of clinical pharmacology at the University Hospital of Toulouse and a professor at the head of the study on Azilect, outlined its findings before the public meeting at the Madrid conference. 1176 patients in the initial phase of the disease have participated in the study. They all received treatment tablets of Azilect, which contains the rasagiline, but were separated into two groups. The doctors administered 1 or 2 mg per day of rasagiline for 72 weeks in the first group and second group received a placebo for 36 weeks followed by 1 or 2 mg rasagiline for 36 weeks.

The ADAGIO study showed a marked improvement in the health status of patients in the first group, who received tablets of 1 mg, compared to the second group. “Considering the strict protocol of the study, having achieved positive and statistically significant confirms the quality of this study and the ability to Azilect influence the evolution of the disease,” said Dr. Michel Panisset, Associate Clinical Professor, co-director of the Clinique des troubles of movement Andre Barbeau of the Hotel-Dieu (CHUM) in Montreal, and investigator of the study ADAGIO.

Slow the progression of the disease has been the greatest challenge in the management of Parkinson’s disease. This test of 18 months, the first of its kind, was designed to demonstrate qu’Azilect was able to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

About four million people worldwide suffer from this neurological condition. Teva society could benefit greatly from the success of this test, the market for treatment against Parkinson’s disease who have reached 3.7 billion in 2007. In France, Azilect received a Certificate of Marketing (AMM), but is not yet available, “without agreement on the sale price,” says Panorama of Medicine.

The team, led by Professor Tamir Ben Hur, director of Neurology and Professor Benjamin Reubinoff, director of research on human embryonic stem cells at Hadassah, has demonstrated for the first time that transplantation of stem cells that derived from human embryonic cells have the ability to reduce clinical symptoms in rats that the disease was induced.

This disease is an inflammatory disease of autoimmune central nervous system. In patients suffering from this disease, the immune system takes target myelin, a substance that protects nerve fibers. Finally, the sensory capacities, motor, visual, balance and control of the sphincter are corrupted.

Stem cells transplanted into the brains of affected mice have migrated to inflammatory sites and put an end to the inflammatory reaction in the brain. The animals were suffering more or demyelination, or damage to axons (extensions of neurons), the characteristic disorder of multiple sclerosis.

Cell Cure Neurosciences, a company that develops stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells to fight against neurodegenerative diseases, has initiated a research program that will lead to clinical trials on patients with multiple sclerosis.

To this silver award winners include 2008 the newly developed shock-proof blood pressure meter of the Fraunhofer Technology Development Group TEG, in cooperation with Dipl.-Ing-Des. Mark Ital RED Research of Engineering Design (www.redproducts.de) on the project has worked. 

The Blutdruckmessgerät “Shock Proof” is characterized by life-long reliable measurement of blood pressure, which ultimately only thanks to the innovative “Shock Proof” technology of the Fraunhofer TEG succeeded.

“Long Life Design, ecologically much sense,” commented the jury prize at the handover, since the device with innovative cushioning even after a fall or other rough handling more accurate and reliable measurements supplies. “Shock Proof” thus serves as a ‘typical strategy of life extension . The fact that the product of robust design, it is also safer, it can not easily be damaged, no one reads from wrong, “said the jury. Thanks to the stability and the resulting higher lifetime, the blood pressure gauge not only economic benefits but also ultimately saves resources and the environment.

With a total value of approximately $ 80 billion, the Japanese pharmaceutical market is the second in the world. According to the JGPMA in 2006, the share of generic drugs amounted to 5.7% of the total value and about 17% of market volume. This share is expected to double in 5 years, because the Ministry of Finance announced in 2007 a plan to promote the use of generic drugs to deal with rising health costs. It should be noted that the Israeli company Teva, a world leader in the production of generics, is considering creating a joint venture with Kowa Pharma Ltd., Japanese pharmaceutical company. The Teva-Kowa Pharma, which should be launched in 2009, is to reach one billion dollars in sales by 2015.

These biopolymers promote targeting therapeutic (drug delivery). In other words, they carry the medicine into the body to treat. The dosage and the duration of delivery of the active substance are controlled. With conventional treatment, the body is fully covered so that a sufficient quantity to reach the area. This practice often causes numerous side effects due to overdose.

The first is a biopolymer nanostructure (1/100.000 mm) capable of delivering a substance not soluble up inside the cell and then inject it there, even if it is located in an area difficult to achieve, as the brain. This technique is particularly useful to treat cancer because many products used to treat poorly dissolve in water. A license for this biopolymer has been given to the American company Brookwood Pharmaceuticals. It has established a partnership with the laboratory of Robert Gurny to identify which treatments may benefit from this technique.

The second polymer is a thermo sensitive gel: liquid at room temperature, it gelled in the heat of the body. It could be injected in liquid form and then freeze it and would remain in place. It is built based on chitosan, a substance extracted from the shells of crustaceans. It is very well tolerated, able to stop the multiplication of bacteria, and biodegradable. This thermo sensitive gel has been the subject of two patents by the University of Geneva. His rights were sold to the company genevoise Chemedica TRB International SA. It plans to develop a product for treating osteoarthritis, which is injected into the joints to lubricate.

The process is based on a bone marrow transplant-antilogous when patients receive their own stem cells and from now on it is a treatment option for the treatment of intestinal disease, which in some cases, unresponsive to medication and requires more complex surgical procedures which are not curative. This technique has already been tested in the United States and Italy, giving excellent results, because after six years following the transplant, 80% of transplant patients are being total remission of the disease, and 20 % has presented notable improvement after transplantation, they respond favorably to medication. In Spain, the first transplants were performed on patients with Crohn’s disease in August 2008. In total, six patients underwent the new treatment, which three have completed the process and are under observation, and three passed the different phases of therapy.

The success of this treatment should not obscure the need for collaboration between a service of Gastroenterology and Hematology Services, haemotherapy, Hemostasis other hand, it is the same process that is to be taken at the Registry part of bone marrow to treat leukemia or multiple myeloma bone known as Kahler’s disease. Each department then oversees the various phases up to the transplant.

Crohn’s disease is one with ulcerative colitis of inflammatory bowel disease. It is a chronic disease of genetic origin that is triggered when the immune system loses tolerance in the patient’s intestinal flora, causing an abnormal inflammatory response and continues. The consequences are an inflammation and ulceration over several areas of the digestive tract which causes the symptoms. The disease progresses by events unpredictable and variable throughout life, and severity of symptoms varies depending on the degree of affection of the intestine and the response to treatment. The disease concerns of people from 18 years to 40 years, and Spain, are diagnosed each year about 2000 new cases. Its diagnosis is often difficult because the symptoms that occur are similar to those of other diseases of the digestive tract: abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, fever, general ill-being, and so on. The quality of life is conditioned by the degree of affection of the disease, in severe cases, it prevents normal life, with a degree of suffering very important due to the seriousness and frequency of intestinal symptoms.

Hospital Clinic of Barcelona is one of the few centers in the world to launch a cell therapy through transplantation of antilogous stem cells. This is an alternative in cases where drug treatment and surgery have not yielded good results. The process takes about two months and consists of six phases. In the USA, it has already been performed on 12 patients with Crohn’s disease, of which 11 of them have had good response in Italy, the therapy was tested on 4 people and 3 of them also a very good evolution after transplantation.

Source:  http://www.plataformasinc.es/19/02/2009

The vaccine has been tested successfully on humanized mice that were inoculated various strains of influenza, including H5N1, or avian influenza virus, which fears that it causes a deadly pandemic if it acquires at random a changing ability to be transmitted from human to human. The specificity of the vaccine is that target proteins within the virus that mutate slightly over time – thus, the inoculated organisms will also be protected against future strains.

The vaccine has yet to pass many tests before being marketed. These initial results represent a remarkable advance in the fight against a pathogen previously quite elusive. Indeed, current vaccines target surface proteins of influenza, which will tend to mutate frequently, vaccines are rapidly becoming obsolete. That’s why every year, the WHO study carefully the trends to recommend three specific strains of viruses that are then used to develop a new vaccine. If the most virulent strains do not correspond to expectations, immunization campaigns are then ineffective. In December 2008 and January 2009, for example, regional outbreaks have been reported in Japan but also in Tunisia and in several European countries.