Arthritis & Rheumatology News and Research

Latest Arthritis & Rheumatology News and Research

PROLOR receives U.S. patent allowance for CTP-modified interferons

PROLOR Biotech, Inc. today announced that it received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for a patent application covering PROLOR's CTP-modified interferons.

12 Oct 2011

Vertex announces availability of INCIVEK to treat hepatitis C in Canada

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced today that INCIVEK (telaprevir) tablets are now available in Canada for people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C with compensated liver disease, including cirrhosis.

11 Oct 2011

Tantalizing glimmers about roles of CCR2 gene, Th17 cell and a missing monocyte

An estimated 1.3 million people in the United States suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. The causes behind this chronic disease — which can exhibit itself as pain, swelling, stiffness, deformation, and loss of function in the joints — have eluded scientists for centuries. A new study by UNC researchers offers tantalizing glimmers about the roles of a gene called CCR2, an immune system cell called Th17 cell, and a missing monocyte.

11 Oct 2011

Takeda, Affymax announce data from multiple studies of peginesatide on anemia

Affymax, Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Global Research & Development Center, Inc., U.S., today announced data from multiple studies of peginesatide have been accepted for presentation at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2011 taking place November 8-13, 2011 in Philadelphia, Pa.

11 Oct 2011

Scientists identify 16M SNPs that associate with risk of gout, serum uric acid levels

Scientists at deCODE Genetics and academic collaborators from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA report the discovery of low frequency variants in the human genome that associate with risk of gout, a common inflammatory arthritis, and serum uric acid levels.

10 Oct 2011

Researchers identify cellular pathway to potentially block disease-inducing inflammation

Researchers have discovered a cellular pathway that promotes inflammation in diseases like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis. Understanding the details of this pathway may provide opportunities for tailored treatments of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

10 Oct 2011

CEL-SCI closes previously announced registered direct offering

CEL-SCI Corporation announced today that it has closed its previously announced registered direct offering for the sale of (i) 13,333,334 shares of its common stock at a price per share of $0.30 and (ii) warrants to purchase up to 12,000,000 shares of CEL-SCI Corporation's common stock at a purchase price of $0.40. The warrants may be exercised at any time prior to October 6, 2014.

7 Oct 2011

UC Davis, UCSF seek to predict and prevent osteoarthritis in young people

How people walk, jump and run and how their knees look in an MRI scanner may hold the secret to predicting years or even decades in advance whether they will develop osteoarthritis, the common degenerative joint disease that strikes half of all Americans by the time they reach the age of 70.

7 Oct 2011

NCKU research team discovers potential target to treat osteoporosis

A National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) research team has discovered that a protein called interleukin (IL)-20 is a key to treating osteoporosis, a disease that lowers a person's bone density.

7 Oct 2011

FDA grants 510(k) clearance to Carticept Medical's Navigator Delivery System

Carticept Medical, Inc., a developer of innovative products for the treatment of cartilage injuries and osteoarthritis, today announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to market its Navigator™ Delivery System (Navigator DS) in the United States.

4 Oct 2011

Creabilis receives $20 million in Series B funding

Creabilis SA, a clinical stage European biotechnology company addressing unmet medical needs in dermatology, inflammation and pain, has raised €15 million ($20 million) in a Series B funding round led by Abbott Biotech Ventures.

4 Oct 2011

La Jolla Institute scientist identifies previously unknown T cell interaction

Most of the time, the immune system is the body's protector, warding off invading viruses and bacteria before they can lead to infection and disease. But in autoimmune diseases, the immune system does an about face, turning on the body and attacking normal cells.

3 Oct 2011

Hassenfeld family, NYU Langone unveil $50M gift to create new pediatric hospital

NYU Langone Medical Center and the Hassenfeld family unveiled a $50 million gift today that will create a comprehensive pediatric hospital at NYU Langone Medical Center.

3 Oct 2011

Improper footwear may lead to severe foot pain, impairment and disability in gout patients

New research shows that use of poor footwear is common among patients with gout. According to the study published in Arthritis Care & Research, a peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), gout patients who make poor footwear choices experienced higher foot-related pain, impairment and disability. Gout patients also reported that comfort, fit, support and cost were the most important factors for selecting footwear.

3 Oct 2011

CSRO survey explores impact of health insurance barriers

The Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations today released the findings of a nationwide survey that explored the impact of health insurance barriers such as prior authorization and step therapy on the ability of rheumatologists to provide effective care to patients.

1 Oct 2011

MDC Partners acquires majority stake in Concentric Pharma

Concentric Pharma Advertising, one of the largest and fastest-growing healthcare advertising agencies in the country, announced today that MDC Partners, Inc., has acquired a majority stake in the company.

1 Oct 2011

Express Scripts launches suite of services through HealthBridge Pharma & Biotech

Express Scripts has launched a suite of services for pharmaceutical and biotech companies through HealthBridge Pharma & Biotech, providing a single-solution approach to patient care.

1 Oct 2011

Special symposium focuses on ethical, legal, and social issues in translational research

An important focus of medical research today is on translating new scientific discoveries into advances in clinical care that will lead to meaningful improvements in health outcomes. Ongoing ethical, legal, and social issues in this era of "translational" research are the subject of a special symposium in the October issue of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (AJMS), official journal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation.

30 Sep 2011

Survey: 25% of employers have little or no understanding of specialty pharmacy, costs

Twenty-five percent of employers have little or no understanding of specialty pharmacy and 53 percent have only a moderate understanding of this challenging benefit according to a new survey released by the non-profit Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), one of the nation's leading business groups of private and public employers.

30 Sep 2011

Study provides insight into earliest stages of some cancers

A novel technique that enables scientists to measure and document tumor-inducing changes in DNA is providing new insight into the earliest events involved in the formation of leukemias, lymphomas and sarcomas, and could potentially lead to the discovery of ways to stop those events.

30 Sep 2011