Sanitation spotty at H and P, say ex-workers
They say medical products firm frowned on reports of flaws
By Rick Barrett of the Journal Sentinel
Do read the complete story here
In addition, the former employees told the Journal Sentinel there was poor communication between them and Spanish-speaking employees who did various jobs in the plant and could not understand English. Smith said she was told to falsify training test results for employees who could not read English.
She and other former employees also told the Journal Sentinel that machines producing disposable medical pads were not always sanitized, and that people were threatened with being fired if they reported it.
Smith said she witnessed employees packing medical pads with their bare hands instead of using rubber gloves, and bringing food, chewing gum and personal items into areas of the plant where such items were prohibited.
In February 2010, an employee's medication was accidentally packed into a box of iodine wipes, according to Smith. The blue pills were wrapped in pieces of paper tucked in with the iodine-wipe packets, she said, and the box was returned by a retailer, unused, in May when the pills were discovered.
Telaprevir's Chemistry Speeds HCV Treatment TimeUpon further study of telaprevir, researchers have determined that it may dramatically shorten the time required for successful Hepatitis C therapy.
Continue reading "Telaprevir's Chemistry Speeds HCV Treatment Time"
Aerobic Exercise May Improve Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
14 April 2011
Walking on a treadmill for one hour a day may slow the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in obese people with prediabetes by jump-starting their metabolism and slowing the oxidative damage wrought by the...
Fragment Of RegeneRx's T(beta)4 Inhibits Activation Of Liver Cells Responsible Fibrosis & Scar Formation
12 April 2011
RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: RGRX) ("the Company" or "RegeneRx") has announced that researchers have found that a fragment of T(beta)4 has the ability to inhibit a type of liver cell responsible for...
HCV Around The World
New Zealand
Pierced ears lead to hepatitis tests
Thu, 14 Apr 2011
News: National
Complications from ear piercings at a Napier store has led to seven people being tested for hepatitis.
Seven people -- most of them teenage girls -- developed serious ear infections with abscesses needing to be cut open and drained, after being pierced at Trendez in February, Hawke's Bay Today reported today.
Hawke's Bay District Health Board and Napier City Council investigated after the series of infections came to light.
"There were deficiencies in the operator's sterile procedures that could cause the transfer of skin infection from one client to another," medical officer of health Dr Nicholas Jones said.
Trendez owner Nick Turner said there was nothing wrong with the sterilisation and procedures in his store, though the inspections had led to replacing some benches, and reorganising equipment.
"Some people just don't follow the recommended guidelines like cleaning with the correct solutions or not touching [new piercings] and cross-contaminating the bacteria."
He had never had a cluster of infections occur before, Mr Turner said.
"I have never had anything but good relations with the health boards in Napier and all over New Zealand, I am confident in our piercing and sterilisation procedures."
UK Bristol News
Almost 700 people could have to be re-tested for hepatitis C after it emerged that results from a Bristol lab may have been wrong.
The Health Protection Agency has written to the GPs of patients who were told they did not have the infection to offer them another test after they found that there may have been issues with the testing.Wall Street and Hepatitis C Drugs
About 40,000 records have been looked at over almost a year so that the south west regional laboratory in Bristol could work out how many people might have been affected by the discovery.
May last year and had not been tested again since.
Most of the patients are believed to be in the wider Bristol area.
The Health Protection Agency said that they were contacting patients as a precautionary measure and were predicting that no more than 10 per cent of those contacted were likely to test positive.
The Health Protection Agency has written to the GPs of patients who were told they did not have the infection to offer them another test after they found that there may have been issues with the testing.
About 40,000 records have been looked at over almost a year so that the south west regional laboratory in Bristol could work out how many people might have been affected by the discovery.
Letters have been sent to the doctors of 691 patients who received a negative test between January 2009 and May last year and had not been tested again since.
Most of the patients are believed to be in the wider Bristol area.
The Health Protection Agency said that they were contacting patients as a precautionary measure and were predicting that no more than 10 per cent of those contacted were likely to test positive.
Vertex Receives Good News on Hepatitis C Treatment
Delving into treatments having direct action on hepatitis C virus, which did not exist before, we observed dozens of drugs that both biotech and pharmaceutical companies have advanced into clinical trials. The majority of the drugs are either protease inhibitors or polymerase inhibitors with a few drugs acting on different pathways. So, from no effective drugs, there are now many on the horizon. This is good news for the desperate patients and for the biotech industry. It demonstrates how far biotechnology can go towards bringing drugs capable of solving problems of intractable diseases that had yet to find treatments. Some of the potential future HCV drugs demonstrate improvements over the first generation protease inhibitors that are due to hit the market, which is what normally happens after the launch of the first breakthrough drugs.
That said; let us see where we are now in the treatment of HCV. Out of the approximately twenty new products in trials, only four have reached Phase III; all four of the drugs are protease inhibitors. Among them, two have successfully completed the final phases after being administered to thousands of patients in the advanced Phase trials. These lucky drugs are telaprevir from Vertex (VRTX) and bacepravir (Victrella) from Merck (MRK). They are expected to reach the market in a few weeks...Continue Reading...
FrontPoint Partners' Skowron Charged With Fraud, Obstruction
"Dr. Yves Benhamou, an expert in hepatitis drugs and a former adviser for Human Genome Sciences Inc"
April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Ex-FrontPoint Partners LLC portfolio manager Chip Skowron joined those accused in a U.S. crackdown on insider trading of hedge funds when he was charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and obstruction.
Skowron, 41, of Greenwich, Connecticut, surrendered yesterday to agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office, said James Margolin, an FBI spokesman. Information Skowron obtained from an insider about hepatitis C drug trials enabled FrontPoint to avoid more than $30 million in losses, prosecutors said.
Skowron was linked to the case brought in November by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Dr. Yves Benhamou, an expert in hepatitis drugs and a former adviser for Human Genome Sciences Inc., prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty April 11 to federal charges and is cooperating with the U.S., prosecutors said......continue reading the three page story..
Healthy You
Docs choose riskier care for selves than patients
By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO (AP) -- Physicians may choose riskier treatment for themselves than they'd recommend for their patients, according to a study that highlights a need for candid discussions about patients' preferences.
The findings are important because patients faced with difficult medical decisions often ask their doctors, "What would you do?" The answer reflects the doctors' values - not necessarily those of the patient. Doctors should know what their patients value most before giving advice, and patients should ask doctors the reasons behind their answers, said study author Dr. Peter Ubel, an internist and behavioral scientist at Duke University...continue reading..
Archives: http://www.archinternmed.com/
Bugs emerge to bug us, and a few pose health risks
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's that time of year when the bugs emerge to bug us.
Some can pose real threats - Lyme disease from tiny ticks, West Nile virus from mosquitoes, or life-threatening allergic reactions to bee stings. But most bug bites in this country are an itchy nuisance.
How itchy or big the welt depends in part on your own skin, how much of the chemical histamine it harbors. Yes, some people really are mosquito magnets. And no, most of the bites people blame on spiders aren't from them at all.
In fact, chances are you won't be able to tell the culprit unless you catch it in the act. Yet doctors and entomologists alike field calls asking, "What bit me?"..continue reading...
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