The World Food Programme (WFP) issued an urgent appeal on Tuesday for $23 million in “financial support from international donors for food aid to Yemen specifically targeted at women and children,” AFP/Google.com reports. The agency said that the “figure represents 42 percent of the 55 million dollars that it needs for the current year to [...]

A threejudge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Wednesday unanimously ruled to lift an injunction blocking Washington state officials from penalizing pharmacists who refused to dispense the emergency contraception pill Plan B, the Los Angeles Times reports (Williams, Los Angeles Times, 7/9). The panel said the district court [...]

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that survival among women with ovarian cancer is influenced by age of menarche and total number of lifetime ovulatory cycles.
This finding suggests that hormonal activity over the course of a womans lifetime may influence the prognosis after an ovarian cancer diagnosis. Results of [...]

Giving a local anaesthetic during a Caesarean section helps manage pain after the operation and can reduce consumption of painkillers, according to Cochrane Researchers. The researchers recommend local anaesthetics as part of integrated pain management strategies for Caesarean section operations, provided that consideration is given to the cost.
“This review is particularly important in light of [...]

The resumption of fighting in Mogadishu, Somalias capital, has forced the majority of people living in the Yaqshid, Karan, and Abdul Azziz districts in the north of the city to flee, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Continuous shelling, explosions, and open combat among various armed groups have [...]

A new treatment for Type 2 diabetes has hit the headlines today. Liraglutide (Victoza), a oncedaily injectable treatment for Type 2 diabetes, is pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisks latest brain child.
From the Glucoagonlike peptide1 (GLP1) family of drugs, it can be taken any time of day, irrespective of meals. It helps to control Type 2 diabetes [...]

Cougar Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ CGRB) announced today that the initial offering period of Johnson & Johnsons (NYSE JNJ) tender offer for all the outstanding shares of Cougar common stock expired at midnight (Eastern time) on July 2, 2009. The offer was conducted through a whollyowned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson named Kite Merger Sub, Inc. [...]

Research led by the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) has identified a new gene associated with diabetes, together with a mechanism that makes obese mice less susceptible to diabetes. A genomic fragment that occurs naturally in some mouse strains diminishes the activity of the risk gene Zfp69. The researchers also found that the corresponding [...]

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in collaboration with scientists at the University of Louisville and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France, have identified the target antigen PLA2R in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy (kidney disease), which has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. These findings appear in [...]

MorphoSys AG (FSE MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) and the University of Melbourne announced today an agreement to cooperate on investigating new therapeutic applications for MorphoSyss MOR103 program. MOR103, a HuCAL antibody against human GMCSF (Granulocyte macrophagecolony stimulating factor), is currently in development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The collaboration announced today [...]