GEN | News Highlights:Firms Report Promising Data for Type 1 and 2 Diabetes Candidates at 71st Annual ADA Meeting

Image via WikipediaGEN | News Highlights:Firms Report Promising Data for Type 1 and 2 Diabetes Candidates at 71st Annual ADA Meeting

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) meeting in San Diego included the presentation of new data from Phase III trials evaluating Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and AstraZeneca’s dapagliflozin, Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly’s linagliptin, and Novo Nordisk’s insulin degludec.

GEN | Analysis & Insight: Cloud Computing Augments Clinical Trial Process

GEN | Analysis & Insight: Cloud Computing Augments Clinical Trial Process

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Pharma and biotech companies have so far tended to use cloud computing services for drug development research, not clinical trials. IBM and other smaller tech companies would like to change all that, though. Additionally, applying cloud computing for data analysis to aid patient care is catching on. As cloud computing extends to clinical data analysis, which would be considered private information, security will loom larger as an issue for drug development companies. The benefits of using the cloud to store, manage, and analyze clinical data are similar to those for other drug development work. The cloud offers time on gigantic, dispersed infrastructures on a pay-as-you-go basis. It is estimated that 8–12% of clinical trial costs come from the need to move data around among various trial sites, comparing the data as it is being created, according to Erich Clementi, vp of strategy and GM of enterprise initiatives at IBM. Additionally, for projects that require heavy data crunching, cloud computing enables vast amounts of processing at a lower cost. For example, Jeffrey T. Leek, Ph.D., assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues used an internally developed, open-source cloud-computing platform called Myrna for calculating differential gene expression in large RNA sequencing datasets. Running an analysis for a single RNA sequence on one laptop could take up to three weeks to complete, Dr. Leek explained. In contrast, by renting computers for cloud computation services for $65, Dr. Leek said he could get results back in an hour and 45 minutes.  Continued....

Recent News Concerning HPV in Men, HPV is now linked to causing Throat Cancer

Throat Cancer Linked to HPV
By LAURA LANDRO

A sharp rise in a type of throat cancer among men is increasingly being linked to HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus that can cause cervical cancer in women.

A new study from the National Cancer Institute warns that if recent trends continue, the number of HPV-positive oral cancers among men could rise by nearly 30% by 2020. At that rate, it could surpass that of cervical cancers among women, which are expected to decline as a result of better screening.

The study is to be presented this week at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

Between 1988 and 2004, the researchers found, the incidence of HPV-positive oropharynx cancers—those that affect the back of the tongue and tonsil area—increased by 225%. Anil Chaturvedi, a National Cancer Institute investigator who led the research, estimates there were approximately 6,700 cases of HPV-positive oropharynx cancers in 2010, up from 4,000 to 4,500 in 2004, and cases are projected to increase 27% to 8,500 in 2020. 

Find out more about HPV  Currently, Merck markets the vaccine Gardisil

Bristol melanoma drug extends survival in study

By Bill Berkrot

NEW YORK | Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's eagerly anticipated experimental drug ipilimumab extended survival of previously untreated patients with advanced melanoma in a late stage study, the company said.

Details of how much longer patients who were suffering from the deadly skin cancer lived after taking the highly promising Bristol drug will be unveiled at a major medical meeting in June.

Bristol-Myers shares were up 4.3 percent at $27.10 in extended trading from their New York Stock Exchange close at $26. They initially jumped 5.7 percent after news of the clinical trial's success was reported.

Extending overall survival -- the primary goal of the study -- is considered the gold standard for cancer drug trials.

U.S. health regulators are expected to approve ipilimumab this week based on results of a different study of patients who had received prior treatment for advanced melanoma.  In that study the Bristol-Myers drug extended survival by an average of four months, which was seen as a major advance for a disease littered with drug failures and for which there are really no effective treatment options.

The Food and Drug Administration in November delayed its approval decision to give it more time to review data on the medicine, setting a new action date of March 26. "Ipilimumab is an exciting drug, especially given the dearth of effective therapies for this bad form of cancer," Sanford Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson said in a research note.Advanced melanoma is one of the deadliest cancers and can quickly spread from the skin to internal organs, such as the brain. Once melanoma spreads to other organs the average survival is typically only six to nine months.

Genome study brings blood cancer into sharp focus

Bio Technician demonstrates the loading of the high tech 454 Life Science sequencing machine in the sequencing laboratory at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, in this March 29, 2010 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCI TECH)

Image via Wikipedia(Reuters) - 

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO | Wed Mar 23, 2011 2:17pm EDT
 

Scientists have mapped out the full genetic code of 38 people with multiple myeloma, uncovering never-before suspected genes that play a role in the blood cancer and showing that a promising new drug might help.

Studying the genetic blueprint of so many people with this cancer allows researchers to have a much more comprehensive picture of what drives the cancer, and it gives drug companies much better clues about how to shut down the disease.

"If we compare the tumor genome to the normal genome, that gives us great clues about what makes a normal cell into a cancer cell," said Todd Golub of the Broad Institute and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who helped lead the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.