Pharma News

Transplant surgeons claim to have used a 'heartin- a-box' device to "revive" hearts from people who have recently died and use the organs to save others. The USD 250,000 device is a wheeled cart with an oxygen supply, a sterile chamber, and tubing to clamp onto a donor heart and keep it fed with blood and nutrients. Doctors said it may extend the time a heart can last outside the body. In at least 15 cases, surgeons in the UK and Australia say they have used the system to successfully transplant hearts removed from patients after they have died.

For the first time, primitive human kidneys have been created in a laboratory dish, by using stem cells, which could be a key step towards the Holy Grail of fully-functional, lab-made transplant organs. The tissue is not a viable organ, but may be useful for other purposes such as replacing animals in drug toxicity tests, the team said.

People with restless leg syndrome (RLS) are at an increased risk for developing stroke, heart and kidney diseases, revealed a new study. The study was published in the Journal of Sleep Research.

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Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma received the final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and market generic Aripiprazole tablets used for treatment of psychotic conditions in the American market. The approval is for the tablets in the strengths of 2mg, 5mg, 10mg, 15mg, 20mg and 30mg.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Opdivo (nivolumab) injection, for intravenous use, for the treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients with EGFR mutation or ALK translocation should have disease progression on appropriate targeted therapy prior to receiving Opdivo. In a Phase 3 trial, CheckMate -057, Opdivo demonstrated superior overall survival (OS) in previously treated metastatic non-squamous NSCLC compared to chemotherapy, with a 27% reduction in the risk of death (hazard ratio: 0.73 [95% CI: 0.60, 0.89; p=0.0015]), based on a prespecified interim analysis.1 The median OS was 12.2 months in the Opdivo arm (95% CI: 9.7, 15.0) and 9.4 months in the docetaxel arm (95% CI: 8.0, 10.7). This approval expands Opdivo’s indication for previously treated metastatic squamous NSCLC to include the non-squamous patient population. Squamous and non-squamous NSCLC together represent approximately 85% to 90% of lung cancer cases.

(NwesVoir); India has been going through a major epidemiological transition over the past 25 years. The burden of premature death and health loss due to non-infectious conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic obstructive lung disease and road traffic has increased massively, and the burden due to lower respiratory infections, tuberculosis, diarrhea and neonatal disorders still remains unacceptably high. The extent of the burden due to these major conditions is expected to vary significantly across the various population groups and the states of India. National-level estimates do not provide enough detail for targeted-action. Hence reliable sub-national estimation of disease burden in India is crucial for an informed health system response to improve population health.

First-born children run higher risk of becoming nearsighted later in life, compared with their later-born siblings, a study says.

One-year-olds who experience frequent night wakings are more likely to have difficulties concentrating and to exhibit behavioural problems at three and four years of age, says a new study.

Researchers have identified a genetic variant that regulates hundreds of genes that govern how and where women's bodies store fat, which affects their risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.