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Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Reports Progress In Cotara(R) Brain Cancer Clinical Program
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHM), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer and serious virus infections, provided an update on progress in the company"s clinical program for Cotara(R), a targeted monoclonal antibody-based therapy being tested in a Phase II trial as a potential new treatment for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a deadly form of brain cancer. The company also reported that patient enrollment in the final cohort of a second Cotara GBM trial, a dose confirmation and dosimetry study, is nearing completion and that interim data from this trial has been accepted for an oral presentation at the Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting to be held June 13-18, 2009.
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New York Agency Loses Grant To Expand Services For Families Affected By HIV/AIDS
AIDS Community Services of Western New York (ACS), a Buffalo-based agency that provides medical treatment and social services for individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS, has lost a $288,500 grant from the Junior League of Buffalo that was to be used to expand a primary care center, the Charlotte Business Journal reports. The Junior League of Buffalo cited a contract agreement that said construction was to be completed by Dec. 31, 2008 as the reason for the decision; construction has yet to begin. ACS President Ronald Silverio said the agency will move forward with its expansion plans, although they will be further delayed, and anticipates that they will receive other funding to replace the loss. Since the ACS began planning this project, they have also experienced cuts in state funding, according to the Journal (Drury, Charlotte Business Journal, 6/19).
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Comparative Effectiveness Tested In Diabetes Study, VA Records Release
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine has found common surgical interventions and stents, the expensive medical devices used in bypass surgeries, are no more effective at preventing death, heart attacks and strokes in diabetic patients than less expensive drugs, the Wall Street Journal reports. The study, which included 2,368 patients, is representative of new interest in head-to-head comparisons of treatments.
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U.N. Program Has Little Effect In Reducing Deaths Among Children In Bangladesh, Study Finds

"The U.N. unveiled a multimillion dollar strategy a dozen years ago to save children worldwide, but a new [Lancet] study has found the program had surprisingly little effect in Bangladesh, one of the world"s poorest countries," the Associated Press reports. Since 1997, when the WHO and UNICEF launched the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) Program to help reduce the numbers of deaths in children under age 5 from diarrhea, pneumonia, measles and malnutrition, more than 100 countries have adopted the program, drawing upon "millions" in aid, according to the news service. The three main components of the IMCI strategy are health worker training, health system improvement --including access to drugs -- and training the community in the importance of child hygeine and immunization. "In Bangladesh, international researchers found the strategy improved the skills of health workers and convinced more people to seek treatment when they got sick" and increased the prevalence of breast-feeding while decreasing the numbers of children suffering from stunted growth by 20 percent (Cheng, 7/30). "Despite improvements in intermediate indicators, the study shows no evidence of significant accelerations in reductions of mortality in children younger than 5 years in the IMCI area compared with the comparison area," the study authors conclude (Arifeen et al., 8/1). In a Lancet comment, Trevor Duke of the Royal Children"s Health explains, "In many countries, during the early period of strong donor funding of IMCI in the mid-to-late 1990s, governments, donors, and international agencies made little effort to incorporate IMCI training in schools and colleges of nursing, community health, and medicine. For IMCI to evolve into a sustainable part of the health culture, programme simplification and increased support for local health-training colleges and existing systems for maternal and child health must occur." He continues, "An estimated $5-8 billion in additional development aid for maternal, newborn, and child health per year would enable the scale-up of the child survival interventions in more than 40 of the poorest countries in the world" (Duke, 8/1). According to the AP, Philip Stevens, a director at the International Policy Network, "said the U.N. should first prove its strategies work. "If a private company produced results like this, it would rapidly go out of business. Yet in U.N. land, failure is used as a justification to ask for more money to do more of the same."" This study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO"s Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and USAID (7/30). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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