Treating diabetes during pregnancy can break the link between gestational diabetes and childhood obesity, according to a Kaiser Permanente study featured in Diabetes Care. The largest study of its kind, this research shows that the risk of childhood obesity rises in tandem with a pregnant woman 's blood sugar level and that untreated gestational diabetes nearly doubles a child 's risk of becoming obese by age 5 to 7. The study also shows for the first time that by treating women with gestational diabetes, the child 's risk of becoming obese is significantly reduced. In fact, children whose mothers were treated for gestational diabetes had the same risk for becoming obese as children whose mothers had normal blood sugar levels.
HEART ATTACK: HUMAN DERIVED STEM CELLS REPAIR RAT HEARTS
When human heart muscle cells derived from embryonic stem cells are implanted into a rat after a heart attack, they can help rebuild the animal 's heart muscle and improve function of the organ, scientists report in Nature Biotechnology. The researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and Geron in Menlo Park, California also developed a new process that they said greatly improves how stem cells are turned into heart muscle cells and then survive after being implanted in the damaged rat heart. The findings suggest that stem cell-based treatments might one day help people suffering from heart disease, the leading cause of death in most of the world.
LIVER CANCER: STRONG RESULTS ENDS CLINICAL TRIAL EARLY
Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals said that a planned review by an independent data monitoring committee found that Nexavar tablets significantly improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and time to progression in an Asia-Pacific regional late-stage clinical trial of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer. Based on the committee 's recommendation, the trial will be stopped to allow all patients to receive treatment with Nexavar. Nexavar targets both the tumor cell and tumor vasculature. Nexavar is currently approved in more than 50 countries, including the United States and those in the European Union, for the treatment of patients with advanced kidney cancer.
DEALS: XOMA LICENSES ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY TO PFIZER
Xoma said it has licensed to Pfizer non-exclusive, worldwide rights to the Berkeley, California-based biotech 's patented bacterial cell expression technology for research, development and manufacturing of antibody products. Under the terms of the agreement, Xoma will receive an upfront cash payment of $30 million and milestone, royalty, and other fees on future sales of all products subject to this license, including products currently in late-stage clinical development. Xoma has licensed its bacterial cell expression technology to many major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
CLINICAL TRIALS: VICAL TESTS ITS DNA VACCINE FOR PANDEMIC FLU
Vical said the enrollment of the first subject in its early-stage clinical trial of the company 's Vaxfectin-formulated plasmid DNA pandemic influenza vaccine. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial will evaluate safety, tolerability and immune responses in up to 60 healthy volunteers age 18 to 45 at two U.S. clinical sites. The San Diego-based company demonstrated its effectiveness against a highly lethal H5N1 challenge in ferrets, the best available animal model. The currently stockpiled pandemic influenza vaccines primarily generate antibody responses against a specific strain, and have a limited shelf life because they cannot be stored frozen. Vical 's plasmid DNA vaccine is designed to provide T-cell and antibody immune responses for broad cross-strain protection, and if frozen, would offer improved storage and deployment.
DRUG DELIVERY: ANESIVA LICENSES NEEDLE-FREE TECH FOR DIABETES
Anesiva and Particle Therapeutics said that they have entered into an agreement granting Oxford, England-based Particle Therapeutics a specific-use license to incorporate Anesiva 's drug delivery technology into Particle 's needle-free, intradermal delivery system for glucagon, a hormone commonly used for the treatment of hypoglycemia associated with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. South San Francisco, California-based The company plans to seek other opportunities for licensing the technology.
RNAI: QUARK FILES PATENT FOR MODIFICATIONS TO MOLECULES
Quark Pharmaceuticals Quark Pharmaceuticals said it has filed a patent application covering a number of novel chemical modifications that confer to the siRNA molecule stability and excellent penetration into the human cells tested. Traditional small molecule drugs work by binding to proteins underlying a disease. But several companies are hoping to harness the power of RNAi to prevent the production of the deleterious proteins in the first place. RNAi is triggered by so-called short-interfering RNA or siRNAs, double stranded RNA molecules consisting of 20 to 25 nucleotides. The Fremont, California-based company said it expects the filing of the patent application to allow it to be less dependent on in-licensed rights to RNAi technology.
MS: STUDY IDENTIFIES "DESIGNER ESTROGEN " AS POTENTIAL DRUG
Scientists at UCLA have found the first evidence that a specific form of estrogen can protect the brain from degeneration yet not increase the risk for estrogen-induced cancers of the breast and uterus. While people with MS have many choices for anti-inflammatory drugs to help prevent flare-ups of their physical symptoms, no medication exists to stop the disorder from causing degeneration of the brain and spinal cord. The UCLA findings offer potential for a "designer estrogen, " a synthetic hormone that doctors could prescribe in higher doses without increasing a patient 's cancer risk. The researchers said this form of estrogen also offers a new weapon for combating brain degeneration caused by Alzheimer 's, Parkinson 's, Lou Gehrig 's disease, spinal cord injury and even normal aging.
HIV: A QUARTER OF PATIENTS SAY THEIR DOCTORS STIGMATIZE THEM
Physicians might want to be extra careful about how they treat HIV-infected patients—not just in the clinical sense but in the way they behave toward them. Even the perception that physicians are stigmatizing patients for carrying the virus that causes AIDS can discourage these individuals from seeking proper medical care, according to a new UCLA study. The study, published in the journal AIDS Patient Care and STDs, found that up to one-fourth of patients surveyed in the Los Angeles area reported feeling stigmatized by their health care providers. This perception was also linked to low access to care among these patients, a large proportion of whom are low-income and minorities.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: GENENTECH BUILDS NEW LAB IN DIXON
Biotech giant Genentech is constructing a 140,000 square-foot research laboratory in Dixon, about 10 miles from its Vacaville manufacturing facility, the Sacramento Business Journal reported. The facility, expected to be fully functioning in 2010, will ultimately house about 160 technicians and researchers on a 13-acre site. The construction of the new facility by South San Francisco, California-based Genentech follows the recent completion of an $800-million expansion of the company 's Vacaville manufacturing site.
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