Supelco, a division of Sigma-Aldrich® (Nasdaq: SIAL), announced the launch of Ascentis Express Peptide ES-C18, a high-speed, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) column based on a new 160 angstrom Fused-Core™ particle design. This column design exhibits very high column efficiency, providing a stable, reversed phase packing with a pore structure and pore size that is optimized for reversed-phase HPLC separations of peptides and polypeptides...

BioMedix Vascular Solutions, Inc. announced that the company has partnered with Howard University Hospital, Department of Surgery to participate in a Community Health Project and Demonstration focused on diagnosing and treating the potentially life-threatening condition called Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD). There was a two-part goal to the project: reach patients in need of care for PAD and lay out a high-quality, cost-effective plan for evaluating a range of diseases utilizing a telemedicine approach...

As President Obama and congressional leaders meet for a health reform summit, the American Public Health Association urges them to move forward on comprehensive, affordable health reform with a focus on prevention and wellness. "We applaud leaders of both parties for meeting and urge them to find common ground to reform our nation's health system," said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (E), executive director of APHA. "This should not be a political exercise...

Precision Therapeutics announced that The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) recently updated the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines for Oncology (NCCN Guidelines™) for Ovarian Cancer Including Fallopian Tube Cancer and Primary Peritoneal Cancer to include the use of chemosensitivity/resistance assays as part of the Principles of Chemotherapy section...

With the realization that half of the people experiencing a sudden mortal heart attack were taking aspirin on the day of their demise, researchers have begun to search for a more reliable alternative, and they may have found it in a red wine molecule called resveratrol (rez-vair-ah-trawl). Researchers at the University of Connecticut induced heart attacks in animals and found resveratrol significantly reduces damage to heart muscle. Scarring and fibrosis were limited and the animals survived an otherwise mortal event. Dipak Das, Ph.D., Sc.D...

Peter L. Saltonstall, president and CEO of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), said the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) announcement that it has created a new position Associate Director for Rare Diseases in the agency's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research's (CDER) Office of New Drugs (OND) represents an important advance for patients with rare diseases...

Every day in the United States, tens of thousands of patients are exposed to ionizing radiation through radiation therapy, CT scans, x rays, mammograms, and other medical imaging and therapeutic procedures. Patients need to have confidence that the technologists caring for them have the credentials and qualifications to safely administer radiation, and that the equipment they are using is properly calibrated and maintained to deliver radiation safely and within the proper dose parameters. These imaging procedures are key to making correct diagnoses of injuries and disease processes...

VION PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (OTC Bulletin Board: VIONQ) announced that it had received a response from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a Special Protocol Assessment ("SPA") for its oncology therapeutic Onrigin™ (laromustine) Injection. In January 2010, Vion filed a SPA with the FDA related to a randomized Phase II/III trial of Onrigin™ in combination with low-dose Ara-C (LDAC) in elderly patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML)...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved velaglucerase alfa for injection (VPRIV) to treat children and adults with a form of the rare genetic disorder Gaucher disease. Gaucher disease occurs in people who do not produce enough of an enzyme called glucocerebrosidase. Without this enzyme, harmful amounts of a certain fatty substance (lipid) can build up in the liver, spleen, bones, bone marrow and nervous system, and can prevent cells and organs from working properly. About 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 100,000 people in the general population have Gaucher disease...

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has launched new guidance today on assisted suicide. The guidance, which applies to people in England and Wales, is not a law change but aims to clarify what factors may be involved when determining whether to prosecute someone for helping a loved one to die. Their publication follows a successful campaign led by Debbie Purdy, who has MS, on the issue of clarification around assisted suicide...