Category Archives: MS Treatment

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish drugmaker Elan is raising more than $3.25 billion by selling its interests in its main drug and will splash out most of the proceeds on acquisitions, effectively reinventing itself as a company. Under a deal announced on Wednesday, Elan's partner Biogen Idec will take full ownership of blockbuster multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment Tysabri and will make an upfront payment to the Irish group plus royalties on future sales. While the deal gives Elan scope to return some cash to shareholders as well as strategic flexibility to buy new assets, it leaves its future shape unclear since Tysabri was by far its most important product, responsible for almost all its revenue. Elan has already spoken to several companies about potential deals and can move quickly once the sale its completed, Chief Executive Kelly Martin told Reuters. "You can do a lot of things with $3 billion, you can buy companies, molecules, you can partner, you can share risk. The world is our oyster," Martin said in a telephone interview. "We are not necessarily restricting ourselves to one therapeutic area or one type of clinical asset. We will not be restricted to our past, which was by and … Continue reading →

M. Haris Z Deen, Ph.D., MBA., BSc., LLB (Hons.) FRICS Naveen Pillai having failed in her earlier attempts in the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2012 to humble and humiliate Sri Lanka on its Human Rights record, continues to rake muck in further attempts to save face at her previous failures. United Nations Human Rights Council session in progress Sri Lanka though bravely faced, confronted and responded effectively to all the charges levelled against her. Furthermore, Sri Lanka, in allowing foreign fact finding missions to the places ravaged by the civil conflict (which has been erroneously termed war) and to confront and question the very people, the Tamils, against whom Naveen claims atrocities have been committed have displayed complete transparency. So far none of these foreign agencies have been able to come up with any evidence to support the trumped up allegations. In fact, Sri Lanka in my view is the only country prepared to open its doors to such fact finding missions to travel freely to wherever they wished to go and speak to whomever they wished to gain evidence from, thus proving that she has no proverbial 'skeletons in her cupboards'. In fact in May 2012 … Continue reading →

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 4, 2013) - Medivation, Inc. ( NASDAQ : MDVN ) today announced that Kathryn E. Falberg has been elected to the Company's Board of Directors.Ms. Falberg will also serve as chair of the Audit Committee. "We are delighted to welcome an experienced pharmaceutical executive of Kate's caliber to Medivation's board," said David Hung, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Medivation, Inc. "As prior chief financial officer at Amgen and current chief financial officer at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Kate brings to our board critical and highly relevant experience successfully leading pharmaceutical companies through periods of rapid growth.Her financial acumen and strategic business and commercial insight will be invaluable additions to our board at a critical time of growth and transformation for Medivation." "I am honored to join the Medivation Board of Directors at such an exciting time in the company's development," said Ms. Falberg."I admire Medivation's success in identifying and developing novel therapies that treat diseases with limited therapeutic options and look forward to providing strategic guidance to help further grow its business." Ms. Falberg currently serves as the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc. She also served as its senior … Continue reading →

Posted: Feb. 1, 2013 | 2:02 a.m. As Dr. Timothy West watched, Jason Buckley walked down a hallway at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health with a cane. "Man, that's great, you were riding a scooter or on crutches not that long ago," said West, who is treating Buckley with a drug regimen and targeted physical therapy to relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, MS. It is an often debilitating disease for about 400,000 people in the United States in which the body's immune system eats away at the protective sheath that covers a person's nerves, a process that interferes with the communication between the brain and the rest of the body. His increased mobility had the 36-year-old Buckley smiling Wednesday. So did something else West told him: The MS program at the Ruvo Center has been awarded a grant of $1.35 million over three years by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, allowing patient participation in research trials, the funding of additional staff, the purchase of diagnostic equipment and the expansion of social service, community outreach and education programs to underserved communities throughout Nevada. "To me, it means we'll have access here to the latest drugs in … Continue reading →

Spring of Youth Medical Group is having a Grand Re-Opening Open House on January 31. The Mayor will be joining us on February 1 for a special Ribbon Cutting ceremony. Ocean Springs, MS (PRWEB) February 01, 2013 Then, on Friday, City of Ocean Springs Mayor, Connie M. Moran, will attend the ribbon-cutting at Spring of Youth Medical Groups new state-of-the-art facility. Mayor Moran grew up in Ocean Springs, MS and was elected Mayor of her hometown in June 2005. Everyone in the Coastal MS area and especially those with varicose veins, spider veins, or who are interested in improving their appearance with the latest aesthetic treatments are welcome to attend the Jan. 31 Open House and the Feb. 1 ribbon cutting. Reservations are required for the Open House, as space is limited. Call 228.283.0077 today to secure a space as a guest at this wonderful event. About Dr. Hazem Barmada A practicing physician for over 30 years, Dr. Hazem Barmada is a Cardio-Vascular and Thoracic Surgeon, with special interest in venous and lymphatic disease. As a Cardiac-Vascular surgeon with extensive national and international experience, he has acquired broad expertise in managing venous disease, harvesting veins, and dealing with any possible … Continue reading →

Jan. 30, 2013 Being obese may increase the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in children and teenage girls, according to new research published in the January 30, 2013, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Over the last 30 years, childhood obesity has tripled," said study author Annette Langer-Gould, MD, PhD, with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "In our study, the risk of pediatric MS was highest among moderately and extremely obese teenage girls, suggesting that the rate of pediatric MS cases is likely to increase as the childhood obesity epidemic continues." For the study, researchers identified 75 children and adolescents diagnosed with pediatric MS between the ages of 2 and 18. Body mass index (BMI) from before symptoms appeared was obtained. The children with MS were compared to 913,097 children who did not have MS. All participants were grouped into weight classes of normal weight, overweight, moderate obesity and extreme obesity. A total of 50.6 percent of the children with MS were overweight or obese, compared to 36.6 percent of the children who did not have … Continue reading →

Newswise Seattle, January 30, 2013) Researchers from Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) have found that proteins in the IL-6 signaling pathway may be leveraged as novel biomarkers of multiple sclerosis (MS) to gauge disease activity and as a target for new therapies. The research, which investigated how several components involved in immune response differ between MS patient and control samples, was conducted by a team of researchers at BRI led by Dr. Jane Buckner in collaboration with Dr. Mariko Kita at Virginia Mason Medical Center and was published today in Science Translational Medicine. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system affecting an estimated 400,000 people in the United States. MS is more prevalent in the Northwest region of the U.S. than almost anywhere else in the world. In the Northwest, the likelihood of being diagnosed with MS (2 in 1,000) is double that across the U.S. (1 in 1,000). Under normal circumstances, effector T cells protect us from infection and cancer and it is the job of regulatory T cells to keep the effector T cells from attacking healthy tissue, thereby preventing autoimmune diseases such as MS. MS occurs when the immune … Continue reading →

Ahead of their appearance at Laneway Festival, DARREN LEVIN unmasks the duo behind New Yorks Tumblr-glitch-pop duo MS MR. In an age of full disclosure and rampant TMI, New Yorks MS MR did a very unusual thing indeed. They kept their identities under wrap long enough to release a debut EP, Candy Bar Creep Show, last year through Tumblr of all places, only revealing their true selves when their music had properly hit critical mass. Now, the cats out of the bag: The band is helmed by Neon Gold Records founder Lizzy Plapinger and Idaho-born producer Max Hershenow, who have turned their dark and mysterious bedroom project into a fully-fledged Tumblr-glitch-pop band (their words). Ahead of their debut Australian tour for [aa,artist:Laneway Festival], the pair spoke rather excitedly to FL about their developing live show, a forthcoming full-length album and the importance of anonymity. I bet you didnt think youd be talking to a journalist in Australia a year ago. Lizzy: [Laughs] No, we definitely didnt. Max: Weve been blown away by the experience so far. Lizzy: But now its really lovely. We have an Australian connection. Do you know much about Laneway? Lizzy: Weve been fans of the festival … Continue reading →

Researchers identified a possible culprit for immune cells resistance to regulation in a small study of multiple sclerosis patients, suggesting a potential new target for treatment. T-cells, when working properly, are an important part of the immune systems arsenal for fighting off invaders. In MS patients, however, they can ignore the controlling orders from regulatory cells and attack the central nervous system, researchers found in a study published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Scientists at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle identified a protein called interleukin-6, or IL-6, as a reason for those cells going rogue in patients with relapsing-remitting MS, the most common form of the disease. We identified a new problem in multiple sclerosis that hadnt been identified before, Jane Hoyt Buckner, an author of the paper and associate director of Virginia Masons Benaroya Research Institute, said today in a telephone interview. Then we were able to show why that happens in MS patients, which is this enhanced responsiveness to the cytokine IL-6. People with relapsing-remitting MS have more receptors for IL-6 on the surface of their T-cells, suggesting IL-6 may be a good target for therapy, Buckner said. More than 2.1 million people worldwide have … Continue reading →

Children have been shown to significantly prefer a new way of treating tooth decay that doesnt involve needles or drills. Dr Lyndie Foster Page, head of preventive and restorative dentistry at the University of Otago Dental School, and colleague Ms Dorothy Boyd, a specialist paediatric dentist, trained 10 Hawkes Bay dental therapists to use the new Hall technique as part of a feasibility study funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC). The Hall technique, which was developed by Scottish dentist Dr Norna Hall, involves placing a stainless steel crown over a baby molar tooth to seal the decay in, rather than the conventional method of removing the decay with a drill and then placing a filling. Starved of nutrients, the decay then stops or slows down. The crown stays in place until it falls out naturally with the tooth at about age 10. Of the nearly 190 children between 5 and 8 years old who took part in the Hawkes Bay study, just over half were Mori. Nearly 100 children received treatment for their decayed teeth using the Hall technique, while the remainder were treated using conventional methods. Many of the children already had six or seven … Continue reading →