Latest Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare News from Anya de Iongh

PTSD - new meaning and relevance

The current wars in the Middle East are pushing research into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder into the headlines, with reports of rates dramatically rising among troops returning from tours. The condition remains severely debilitating, and research is looking at the possibility of preventing PTSD itself. Studies have suggested that PTSD patients have lower levels of urinary cortisol immediately...

Downs Syndrome - Testing Developments

The trisomy of chromosome 21 is responsible for the symptoms of Down’s Syndrome. This strong genetic basis for the condition has made it a prime candidate for genetic testing in utero. The current test is risky for the unborn baby (1 in 100 risk of a miscarriage) and has been proven to be unreliable in a growing number of cases. But that may change with new research from Kings College Lon...

The Big Business of Probiotics

Biotics are big business, whether they are probiotics or antibiotics. Recent research has also suggested they both may be beneficial if used together. With one of the common side of antibiotics being diarrhea, probiotics taken as prophylaxis, alongside the course of antibiotics may help prevent gut bacteria imbalances from developing and the resultant diarrhea. Probiotics are being found to hav...

Treating indecisiveness?

Shared decision making is one the key stones of modern medicine, as a partnership between patient and clinician. In order to participate in the decision making process, patients and their carers and families need information to inform their decision. The idea behind shared decision making is to improve costs and patient satisfaction, as well as the overall clinical outcomes too. Traditionally...

In the mind of a computer

The latest application of computer imagery and graphic design is in the field of mental health, to support people with schizophrenia. Avatars have been translated from big movies to psychiatry research labs, where they are created and modeled on the voices that the patients hear. The results from this initial study in London are impressive, with most participants saying that the voices had impr...

Deficiency in Pregnancy

The nine months during a pregnancy and the months that follow during breast-feeding can place a number of physical, physiological and metabolic demands on women. With our nutritional and chemical balances often being disturbed during a time when it is so important that they are adequately maintained, obstetric studies often look at deficiencies during pregnancy. The impact of these deficiencies...

Mental Health Awareness Week 2013

The 13-19th May in the UK is Mental Health Awareness Week, a week where the Mental Health Foundation runs national campaigns looking at mental health, and this year specifically, the impact of exercise and physical activity on mental health and wellbeing. Since endorphins were discovered, it has been well known that exercise can give you a feel-good factor. But the wider impact and potential...

MS Lottery

Multiple Sclerosis is a difficult disease for patients, with troublesome fluctuating symptoms and a general degeneration and decline in function. The challenge for MS patients partly due to the lack of a cure for the disease, but it is often made harder by the availability of drugs. A recent report by the MS Society in the UK suggested that 60% of patient who are eligible for MS medications and...

Slimming drugs: dangerous and unregulated

The potential of pharma has expanded beyond the realms of curing medical conditions into the more consumer facing areas such as weight loss. While the potential market for such products may be enormous, it is one that is unregulated and dangerous compared with the rightly controlled clinical market. With weight loss plans being often decided without medical advice, and the substances can be boug...

Bird Flu returns

The flu has been the topic of several blogs here (Influenza Report and SARS Virus), and the recent reports from China have been causing it be in the headlines again.  Last week the UN had recorded 28 cases and 9 deaths in China, and other figures released since then suggest the number is rising. Although there are no cases documented outside China, the modern world as it is, with aviation...

Measles on the rise

Measles was supposed to be on the decline after the wide-spread introduction of the MMR jab, but following controversy over a debated link with autism, take up of the jab dropped for a number of years. The potential impact of that is now being felt in Wales, UK, where a measles outbreak is happening. As of the 6th April, almost 600 cases have been confirmed.  It is fast turning into a majo...

Keeping your eye on the Cholesterol

Macular degeneration is one of the commonest forms of blindness, but tackling another common health problem, high cholesterol, may be able to prevent it from developing. Researchers in America have published a study suggesting that immune cells containing too much fat can destroy parts of the eye by stimulating the production of new blood vessels – the cause of macular degeneration - and t...

Phenotypic Drugs - an introduction

With the pressure mounting for new drugs, researchers are finding new ways to discover these much needed compounds. Phenotypic Drug Discovery (PDD) is one of these methods. The key behind this phenotypic method is to screen current compounds and those in pipelines for other conditions for the phenotypes that would make them suitable candidates for another disease. A recent report, Phenotypic Dr...

Osteoporosis: Healthy Bones & Healthy Society?

Osteoporosis is a significant issue for many patients nowadays. In addition to causing pain and suffering, because osteoporosis manifests itself in osteoporotic fractures, there is a considerable health and economic impact. A recent study in Denmark suggests  that such fractures cost Denmakr EURO1.563 billion annually, with a greater proportion of that cost associated with women and peopl...

Antibiotic Resistance: The Big Threat

The Chief Medical Officer in the UK has just announced as part of her annual report that antibiotic resistance should be ranked as much of a threat to the country as terrorism. When the Chief Medical Officer last spoke about the threat in November, the BioPortfolio blog looked at some of resistance mechanisms, which are being closely studied to find ways to avoid the development of resistance ()...

Sequencing Complexity

Sequence libraries look baffling, and are just as complex to the trained eye. The ability of researchers to sequence and catalogue genomes in the way we can today is thanks to the power computers that programme it. Computer software systems combined with statistical powers have enables researchers to predict the complexity, which in turn helps predict the depth of sequencing needed for adequate...

Neuroscience business synapses

Neuroscience is one of the final frontiers in human biology, presenting scientists with many unknowns and complexities. The sheer number of neurones and synapses and degree of plasticity make it a challenging field to work in. But one of great importance. Many of the diseases that remain incurable affect the  nervous system, and some are becoming more common, such as Alzheimer’s as ou...

Hospital food – Nutritious and nurturing health?

This week saw the publication of Sustain’s Campaign for Better Hospital Food report which highlighted the poor quality food that inpatients receive and called for dramatic improvements to hospital food in the UK. This topic hasn’t been aired for the first time – previous schemes to address the poor quality of food have been unsuccessful, and the report claims that £54m ha...

Assisted Reproductive Technology Update

The progress made in the field of assisted reproductive technology is illustrated by the fact that field barely existed fifty years ago before Louise Brown was born in 1978 thanks to the genius and hard work of Edwards and Steptoe. Now ART is a booming area of research and market for therapeutics. The key proteins, Folicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and lutein...

The FDA and the scope of its work

The US Food and Drug Administration is a large institution that has an enormous impact on the landscape of healthcare in America. It has a varied role and is regularly in the headlines. Below is a selection of the latest news stories that illustrate the breadth of work that the FDA does. Regulating dietary supplements has become a considerable part of their work since the boom in the weight-los...

Patient Involvement in Research

Medical research is the realm of scientists in white coats, and is a million miles from patients – if the research ever even filters down the clinic anyway. Except it is not. It is becoming clearer that patients and the public can make a really significant and very beneficial contribution to research – from the word go! Research processes start with a question – what do we ne...

Improving compliance

Different techniques in medicine need to be targeting to different people, using different arguments. The stuff usually dismissed as soft by the hard and fast scientific pharma companies is now being acknowledged as having an impact on their work. Take compliance (patients adhering to medical treatments) – one of the biggest reasons for failure of treatment in patients. If patients don&...

Patients: hidden key for drug development?

The world of patient support and advocacy may seem a million miles from the technological and financial driven world of pharmaceuticals, but pharma companies are beginning to wake to the potential of involving patients. Patient advocates have several aims: supporting other patients; campaigning for better healthcare services; and campaigning for more research to find a cure or better treatments...

Generics vs Brand: the subtleties of compliance

Getting patients to adhere to full courses of medication is challenging. It has significant cost implications for healthcare providers, and detrimental effects on patients health, but is also blamed for the rise in drug-resistant bacteria. But recent research has found a subtle change that could make a big difference to compliance. When almost 70% of prescriptions for patients are generic, any s...

Keeping blood moving

Anti-coagulants are standard treatment for patients post-operatively, patients who are immobile for periods of time, as well as patients who have received cardiovascular implants such as replacement valves. The aim is to prevent the formation of clots and therefore reduce the chance of strokes. This wide-spread use of anti-coagulants makes it an important market area. This is illustrated by the...