Month: January 2014

(Reuters) – Sangamo Biosciences Inc said it would collaborate with Biogen Idec Inc to develop treatments for a group of inherited blood disorders in a deal for up to $320 million. Sangamo shares jumped as much as 30 percent to a six-year high of $17.73 on the Nasdaq on Thursday morning. Biogen will use Sangamo’s genome-editing technology to develop drugs targeting sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. It will provide Sangamo $20 million upfront and reimburse costs related to research and development.

By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a new study from South Korea, people with worsening glaucoma on just one side were also more likely to sleep with the affected eye facing downward. In glaucoma, the optic nerve is often damaged by increased intraocular pressure. According to the World Health Organization, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness around the world, after cataracts. “There is prior data from the early nineties, suggesting that in patients with glaucoma who sleep on their sides, the eye in the dependent position tends to have greater damage of the optic nerve,” Dr. Jeffrey Schultz told Reuters Health in an email.

(Reuters) – Medtronic Inc’s experimental device to treat high blood pressure failed to meet its main goal in a clinical trial, sending the company’s shares down nearly 5 percent. The device, known as renal denervation system, is aimed at high blood pressure-patients who are resistant to traditional drug therapies and works by deadening nerves in kidneys. “The impact of this news on Medtronic should be modest as we only model worldwide revenues (from the device) of … 1.2 percent of total company sales in 2018,” Wells Fargo Securities analyst Larry Biegelsen wrote in a note. However, despite meeting its main safety goal in the trial, Medtronic said it would halt ongoing trials of the device in the United States, Japan and India.

AC Immune, a privately held biotech company based in Switzerland, has launched the world’s first trial of a vaccine against a protein believed to cause Alzheimer’s after securing funding from private investors. Its ACI-35 vaccine aims to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies which target the tau protein that forms twisted fibers and tangles inside the brain. Many scientists believe tau is an important cause of Alzheimer’s, alongside another protein known as amyloid, that has been the main focus of drug development efforts so far. AC Immune’s most advanced Alzheimer’s drug is the anti-Abeta antibody crenezumab which it licensed to Roche’s subsidiary Genentech in 2006.

Yo-yo dieting, the ongoing, repeated cycle of weight loss and regain, … and minerals in a vast array of food products that promote good health and …

Americans will spend $66 billion this year on weight loss, according to … and moving more,” says Madelyn Fernstrom, NBC News diet and health editor. … reason is probably that you're being more mindful of the foods you're eating.

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A 58-year-old Utah woman is set to give birth in a few weeks — to her first grandchild.