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Schering-Plough Expands Vicriviroc Phase II Study In Treatment-Naive Patients With HIV
Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) announced that it has extended to stage two an ongoing Phase II clinical study with vicriviroc, its investigational CCR5 antagonist, for use in first-line therapy of adult treatment-naive HIV-infected patients with R5-type virus only. In this study, vicriviroc is being evaluated in a novel nucleoside-sparing regimen that is designed to provide additional options for treatment-naive patients in a once daily regimen, while preserving other drug classes for subsequent lines of treatment.
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5 Spanish Centers Join A Study For A New Leukemia And Lymphoma Treatment Technique
The Gamida Cell-Teva Joint Venture have today that five prestigious cord blood transplantation centers in Spain, three in Barcelona and two in Valencia, have joined the ExCell study.
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Fertility Treatments Becoming More Common, Costly To Health Care System, CDC Says
The number of assisted reproduction procedures, such as in vitro fertilization, continues to increase at a rapid pace, with half of the 54,656 infants born in 2006 being twins, triplets or higher multiples, according to a series of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, HealthLeaders Media reports. Since 2001, the number of live-birth deliveries -- which includes those in which at least one infant was born -- as the result of assisted reproductive technology increased by 41%, and the number of infants born as a result increased by 34%, according to CDC. ART services are offered at 483 medical centers, compared with 421 in 2001.According to CDC, ART procedures are more likely to result in multiple births, which produce higher rates of complication in the infants, such as prematurity, low birthweight and disability. CDC said that the cost of treating complications resulting from ART pregnancies totaled $1 billion in 2005, presenting an economic burden to hospitals and payers. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology recommend that doctors transfer one embryo in women younger than age 35, one or two in women ages 35 to 37, no more than three embryos in women ages 38 to 40 and up to five in older women and "extraordinary circumstances." However, CDC reported that about 16% of ART procedures since 2001 involved four or more embryos, and 5% involved five or more embryos, indicating that these guidelines were not widely followed. According to CDC, "In certain states, ART procedures are not covered by insurance carriers, and patients might feel pressured to maximize the opportunity for live-birth delivery by transferring multiple embryos." The report also noted that physicians might be implanting more embryos to increase the percentage of total live-birth deliveries by their patients. The report said that to "minimize the adverse maternal and child health effects associated with multiple pregnancies, ongoing efforts to limit the number of embryos transferred in each ART procedure should be continued and strengthened."Many hospitals consider ART a lucrative field because most patients undergoing the procedures have private insurance or pay out of pocket. However, health plans pass on the costs of complications to employers and the insured in the form of higher premiums, HealthLeaders Media reports. Thomas Moore, director of Obstetrical Services at the University of California-San Diego, said, "Even though private insurance pays a large percentage of the cost of caring for these newborns, it can be expensive for the health insurance industry overall," adding, "At $2,000 to $3,000 a day for intensive care, which can continue three and four months, that"s a cost that raises premiums across the board" (Clark, HealthLeaders Media, 6/12).
Cardiovascular

New UIC Center To Eliminate Health Disparities Established With $7M Grant

The University of Illinois at Chicago has been awarded a $7.2 million federal grant to establish the UIC Center of Excellence in Eliminating Health Disparities. The new center, funded by a five-year grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health, will focus on health disparities in prostate and colorectal cancer, community-based breast cancer initiatives, and training and educating the next generation of health disparities researchers. "The new center will be a multi-faceted, university-wide re to integrate health disparities research and activities," said Elizabeth Calhoun, associate professor of health policy and administration at the UIC School of Public Health, and director and principal investigator of the new center. "We plan to engage new investigators in health disparities, reaching not only into our undergrad and graduate populations, but even into high school, to build a pipeline of researchers interested in health disparities." Carol Ferrans, professor and associate dean for research at the UIC College of Nursing, is co-director of the center. Researchers at the center will build upon prior UIC research to implement a community project to eliminate breast cancer disparities in South Side Chicago communities disproportionately affected by high rates of breast cancer deaths. The project will use culturally sensitive messages to promote mammography screening, address beliefs that contribute to screening reluctance, and address personal and health system barriers to screening. The center"s primary research projects will specifically look at disparities in prostate and colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer among African-American women and the third most common for African-American men. Late stage diagnosis, method of detection, delays from detection to surgical intervention, and disparities in treatment may all contribute to African Americans having the highest mortality from this disease of any racial or ethnic group, according to researchers. In one study, led by Garth Rauscher, UIC assistant professor of epidemiology, researchers will enroll 500 African-American patients newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer to obtain information about screening, stage at diagnosis and treatment. The researchers will look at personal barriers such as cultural beliefs about cancer, social support, transportation, housing, literacy, perceived stress, fear, medical trust, as well as access barriers such as insurance status. A second study, led by Vince Freeman, UIC assistant professor of epidemiology, will compile data on prostate and colorectal cancer cases diagnosed between 1995 and 2008 in Chicago to conduct a population-based analysis of clinical, socioeconomic and health care factors that account for mortality differences between African Americans and Caucasians. Ultimately, these statistical models will allow researchers to predict hot-spot areas heavily burdened with disease, said Calhoun, and provide effective measures for deploying res such as targeted cancer screenings. The center has a research core, a training and education core, and a community engagement core, led by Richard Warnecke, Faye Davis, and Carol Ferrans, respectively, who are researchers at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy. Rauscher and Freeman are researchers at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy and the UIC Cancer Center. The new UIC Center of Excellence in Eliminating Health Disparities will involve faculty from all six of UIC"s health sciences colleges, the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy, the UIC Center for Clinical Translational Science, and the UIC Cancer Center to develop a comprehensive strategy to incorporate research, education, policy changes and community partnerships to reduce health disparities in Chicago and beyond. Sherri McGinnis Gonzç¡lez University of Illinois at Chicago


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