Pharma News

Youth who said they were teased or ridiculed about their weight increased their body mass by 33% more each year, compared to a similar group who had not been teased, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The findings appear to contradict the belief that such teasing might motivate youth to change their behavior and attempt to lose weight. The study was conducted by Natasha A. Schvey, Ph.D., of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. It appears in Pediatric Obesity.

Novartis announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Piqray (alpelisib, formerly BYL719) in combination with fulvestrant for the treatment of postmenopausal women, and men, with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-), PIK3CA-mutated, advanced or metastatic breast cancer, as detected by an FDA-approved test following progression on or after an endocrine-based regimen.

A protein from Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), which can infect monkeys and apes, has shown promise as a potential component of a vaccine against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), in a new study from scientists at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

Cardiologists know that familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), a condition that causes extremely high levels of cholesterol at an early age, is genetic. When one person is diagnosed, other family members can be identified. However, only an estimated 10 percent of those with FH are diagnosed, leaving many others at risk.

More than 20 million babies were born with a low birthweight (less than 2500g; 5.5 pounds) in 2015 - around one in seven of all births worldwide according to the first-ever estimates documenting this major health challenge.

After decades of ground-breaking laboratory works, the world’s scientific and technical community, in a landmark and historic decision taken in the recent open session of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) at BIPM on 16 November 2018, has unanimously adopted the resolution to redefine four of the seven base units, the kilogram (SI unit of weight), Kelvin (SI unit of temperature), mole (SI unit of amount of substance), and ampere (SI unit of current). This decision has now enabled scientists and researchers to base the SI units entirely on fundamental properties of nature, which will ensure their ongoing refinement and improvement for years to come. The fundamental constants are invariants of time and space and successfully replaced the artifact based units, and aptly opened up the new era for quantum world by linking all seven base units to fundamental constants/quantum standards.

New clinical research supported by the National Institutes of Health shows that increasing the intensity of treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) over time improves alcohol-related outcomes among people with HIV. This stepped approach to AUD treatment also improves HIV-related disease measures in this patient population.  A report of the new study, led by researchers at Yale University, is now online in The Lancet HIV.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning patients and health care professionals of risks associated with the use of unapproved or unauthorized devices for diabetes management, including continuous glucose monitoring systems, insulin pumps and automated insulin dosing systems.

A new drug that inhibits neonatal seizures in rodent models could open up new avenues for the treatment of epilepsy in human newborns. Researchers have identified that gluconate a small organic compound found in fruit and honey acts as an anticonvulsant, inhibiting seizures by targeting the activity of channels that control the flow of chloride ions in and out of neonatal neurons. A paper describing the research, from an international team of scientists led by Penn State researchers, appears May 15, 2019 in the journal Molecular Brain.