TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Some experimental diabetes treatments in late testing offer patients hope of better controlling their blood sugar and weight and preventing dangerously low blood sugar, all big challenges for millions of diabetics. Results from studies of several new diabetes medicines and insulin products, just announced at the premiere U.S. conference for diabetes specialists, likewise hold the promise of billions in annual revenue for drugmakers that have dominated the diabetes market and for others breaking into it. They have been presenting their data at the American Diabetes Association conference, held in Philadelphia from last Friday through Monday. Until the last decade, relatively few companies made treatments for diabetes, a chronic condition in which the body either does not make enough insulin to break down the sugar in foods or uses insulin inefficiently. Now many more drugmakers have jumped in, as the number of American diabetes patients is about 26 million and growing fast, and there are tens of millions more in Western Europe, China and India. That's because the global obesity epidemic has caused a similar explosion of diabetes cases. About 95 percent are Type 2 diabetes, usually related to being overweight and sedentary. Type 2, once called … Continue reading →

Home > News Synthetic drugs reach Lynn area By Taylor Provost / The Daily Item LYNN Public Health Director MaryAnn OConnor said a 13-year-old Lynn girl told her grandmother she bought and used fake pot and ended up passing out on a sidewalk. She reported experiencing a major, major headache and heart palpitations after she was taken to the emergency room, OConnor said. We have a little girl who is scared for her life, who gave it to her grandmother who reported it, she said of the so-called synthetic drugs that are showing up in Lynn. She said she found it at a gas station. OConnor said synthetic drugs and the trendy designer drug bath salts, pose a danger to kids and teens who might not realize just how serious the drugs are. While the substances sold as fake pot may resemble marijuana and are marketed as a legal alternative, OConnor said there is nothing natural about them. Kids think theyre getting legal pot and what theyre really getting is a banned substance thats chemical, she said. The effects are much more dangerous, and you dont know what it will do it depends on the person. The problem has been … Continue reading →

Scientists at a biomedical research laboratory in Cambridge have developed a computer model to test drugs for adverse side effects before they would be given to people in clinical trials. If proven successful, such an approach could be a significant step toward solving a major problem facing the pharmaceutical industry. Adverse drug reactions are a costly liability, causing about 20 percent of drugs in clinical development to fail, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. The ability to detect them early in the development process could spare patients harmful reactions and save the time and expense of launching clinical trials on drugs that carry problematic side effects. Already, companies test drug candidates in animals and in the lab to minimize the possibility that drugs with toxic effects are tested in people. But those offer only a limited way to mimic how a drug will act in humans, so crafting tests that could flag molecules likely to have side effects has become been a priority. I think this is an extremely powerful tool, said Kenneth Kaitin, director of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, who was not involved in the study. One of the … Continue reading →