Month: June 2013

A ruling by the Supreme Court that human genes can't be patented is expected to increase access and drop the cost for tests for gene mutations that greatly raise the risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court decision on Thursday to uphold patent protections for genetic material that has been changed in the laboratory but invalidate patents for purely natural DNA may seem like a partial setback for the biotech industry, but experts said it isn’t: the industry has already moved on. …

LONDON (Reuters) – British drugmaker AstraZeneca is deepening its collaboration with academia by roping in more outside researchers to help to find new cancer drugs. Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Paterson Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Manchester will use the company’s compounds as a starting point to hunt for potential new drugs, the partners said on Friday. The company is also, for the first time, inviting external researchers to work on compounds within its own screening facility at Alderley Park in northwest England. …

By Ransdell Pierson (Reuters) – Eli Lilly and Co. said on Thursday it halted a mid-stage study of an experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment due to potential liver toxicity, the latest setback in the quest to find a treatment that can slow or cure the memory-robbing condition. Lilly said the Phase II study of the drug, LY2886721, from a class known as beta secretase, or BACE, inhibitors, was stopped after safety monitors identified cases of abnormal liver tests. …

By Ellen Wulfhorst (Reuters) – A 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl with cystic fibrosis who became eligible for an adult organ transplant after a legal battle waged by her family was recovering on Thursday from double-lung transplant surgery, a family spokeswoman said. The most immediate risks facing Sarah Murnaghan, a day after she received lungs from an adult donor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, were the possibility of bleeding and the chance the lungs were damaged and do not function properly, experts said. …

By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who left his home country last year and became a visiting scholar at New York University, will leave the school this summer but will likely remain in the United States, university officials said on Thursday. Chen made international headlines last year when he escaped house arrest in China's Shandong province, after campaigning for farmers and disabled citizens and exposing forced abortions in China. Chen spent 20 hours on the run before finding refuge at the U.S. …

NEW YORK (AP) — Eli Lilly and Co. said Thursday that it stopped a mid-stage clinical trial of an experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug because of potential side effects on patients’ livers.

By Stephanie Simon BOSTON (Reuters) – Disabled students and adults in Providence, Rhode Island, will no longer be sent to isolated workshops to sort jewelry, package medical supplies and perform other odd jobs for little or no pay under a settlement reached Thursday between the state, the city and the federal government. The U.S. Department of Justice had accused the state and city of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to integrate students and adults with disabilities into mainstream society. …

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who fought for a lung transplant has a difficult journey ahead. The transplant isn't a cure for her cystic fibrosis, and new lungs don't tend to last as long as other transplanted organs.

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Although doctors sometimes prescribe anti-seizure drugs to treat chronic pain in the vulva, just a handful of low-quality studies have examined the drugs’ effects, according to a new review. Based on these studies, “it’s very difficult to make definitive statements on efficacy,” said Dr. Raphael Leo, the study’s author from the State University of New York at Buffalo. “Certainly, more investigation is warranted.” Still, “I think that there is promise” for the use of anti-seizure medications, he added. …

By Michael Haskins KEY WEST, Florida (Reuters) – Australian long-distance swimmer Chloe McCardel was making good headway in calm seas at dusk when she suddenly hit a stinging swarm of jellyfish, eventually forcing her to abandon her quest to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. "It felt like explosions hitting my body," she told reporters on Thursday after returning to Key West. McCardel, 28, was pulled from the water on Wednesday night. …