Approximately 3,000 U.S. children are born annually with severe heart defects in which one ventricle is too small or weak to pump effectively. While a single ventricle defect is not the most common birth abnormality, it is one of the most challenging due to its surgical complexity and high morbidity and mortality rate. As a result, high-volume facilities, such as the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), have developed strategic programs to better manage and treat such patients.

Experts clash on ARBs potential link to cancer

To assist in the development of its CER-001, an HDL therapy to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease, Cerenis Therapeutics has raised 40 million ($51.7 million U.S.) in series C financing and has been granted 10.7 million ($13.8 million U.S.) by French government organization OSEO.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has reported that its net income slipped to $1.27 billion in the 2010 second fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, compared with $1.3 billion in the prior-year quarter, despite an increase in net sales.

Single mammography reading with computer-aided detection (CAD) and double reading yielded similar cancer detection rates; however, each reading regimen helped radiologists detect cancers missed by the other, according to the CADET II study published in the August issue of Radiology.

Due to the "ambiguous vote" July 14 by FDA advisers and the mounting body of data surrounding the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia), the FDA has only two choices: Either enact stronger warnings for the drug or remove it from the market all together, according to Clifford J. Rosen, MD, of the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough, Maine, and an FDA advisory committee member.

The FDA has informed GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the manufacturer of the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia), that the postmarketing trial TIDE (Thiazolidinedione Intervention With Vitamin D Evaluation) has been placed on partial clinical hold.

Among patients on high-doses of statin therapy who achieve low levels of LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol concentrations are not predictive of cardiovascular risk, according to a sub-study of the JUPITER trial published July 21 in the Lancet.