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Legislators Weigh Goals of Personalized Medicine Bill
Podcast

When Barack Obama was a junior senator from Illinois he introduced legislation designed to foster the development of personalized medicine. New versions of that bill have followed, but never managed to get out of committee. The latest one, introduced in May, now faces the added dynamic of an emerging controvery over direct-to-consumer genetic tests. We spoke to Dan Vorhaus, editor Genomics Law Report and an attorney with Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson about the legislative efforts, what this latest version of the bill seeks to accomplish, and whether there’s a future for direct-to-consumer genetic tests. Read More Here

Judge Blocks Funding for Stem Cell Research
Court overturns Obama Administration guidelines.
A U.S. district court judge has blocked federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, overturning guidelines crafted by the Obama administration to fund such work. The injunction will have a significant negative impact on the field, says Arnold Kriegstein, director of the Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, San Francisco. Read More Here

A Big Bet on Biofuels
Shell and Cosan joint venture moves closer to reality.
A $12-billion joint venture between Shell International Petroleum and Brazilian ethanol producer Cosan moved closer to reality as the two companies signed binding agreements on a deal first proposed in February. If completed, the deal will create the third largest ethanol producer in the world with 4,500 retail stations and annual production of 440 million gallons. Read More Here

Remarkable Result in Melanoma Drug Trial
Study drug shrinks tumors in 81 percent of melanoma patients.
Plexxikon said its experimental drug, the subject of a collaboration with Roche, was able to shrink melanoma tumors in 81 percent of patients in an early-stage trial. The positive results were short-lived. Tumors grew again in all but two of the trial patients following the treatment. But researchers have hailed the result as a breakthrough in treating the notoriously tough-to-treat cancer. Read More Here

Actos and Avandia pose similar risks
New study contrasts with earlier findings on top diabetes drugs.
People taking Takeda's Actos or Glaxo's Avandia for diabetes face equal heart risks according to a new study that contradicts earlier reports that suggested Actos was safer. Read More Here

Roche Bets Big on Ailero
Partners see promise in peptides for tackling tough diseases.
Roche is investing $25 million to back a drug-delivery technology developed by Aileron Therapeutics, a small company that stands to earn $1.1 billion in milestone payments plus royalties should its technology help Roche develop successful new medicines. Read More Here

Retrovirus Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Study could open new avenues of treating a debilitating disease.
A new study has found gene sequences of a family of retroviruses in blood samples collected from patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and some healthy blood donors. The study replicates similar research published last year in the journal Science that also linked these newly discovered retroviruses to chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition that afflicts as many as 4 million people in the United States. Read More Here

Costs of Scientific Misconduct
Case study sheds light on underappreciated consequences of research misconduct.
Scientific research is critically important to advancing knowledge and improving life. The assumption is that it will be conducted ethically, and results of experiments will not be fabricated to fit a hypothesis. Nevertheless, that’s not always the case. Read More Here

Abuse Concerns Lead FDA Committee to Reject Expanded Use of Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ Drug
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets and other business mishaps.
A joint advisory committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly voted against the approval of Jazz Pharmaceuticals drug Xyreme for fibromyalgia because of concerns that the risks exceed the benefits. The drug, sodium oxybate, is a central nervous system depressant. It is also known as gamma-hydroxybutyrate or GHB, widely referred to as ‘the date rape drug.” Read More Here

Researchers Find Key Proteins for Drought Tolerance
Study could aid in the development of crops capable of thriving in a hotter and dryer world.
Researchers have identified the set of proteins that help plants withstand water stress and survive drought. Their findings could help underpin the development of new crop plant strains capable of thriving under hot and dry conditions, and address one of the biggest challenges for agricultural biotechnology in light of the pressing need to expand and intensify agricultural production on marginal lands worldwide, especially in the context of global climate change. Read More Here

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