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Trinam(R) Phase III Study Enrols First Patient
Ark Therapeutics Group plc ("Ark" or the "Company") announces that the first patient has been enrolled into the US Phase III study for Trinam®. Trinam® is Ark"s novel gene-based medicine to prevent blood vessels blocking in kidney dialysis patients who have undergone vascular access graft surgery. The product is an adenovirus-mediated VEGF D gene delivered with a novel biodegradeable local delivery device (EG001).
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Obama Says He Supports 'Robust' Protections For Health Workers With Moral, Religious Objections
President Obama on Friday said that although he intends to reverse the Bush administration"s provider "conscience" rule, he still favors a "robust" federal policy that would enhance the rights of health care workers to refuse to perform certain procedures because of moral or religious objections, the Washington Post reports. In a session with reporters one week before his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, Obama said that he is a "believer in conscience clauses." He added that a new policy from his administration "may not meet the criteria of every possible critic of our approach, but it certainly will not be weaker than what existed before the changes were made." According to the Post, Obama"s comments aimed to reassure Roman Catholic health care workers that they would still be able to refuse to perform abortions and other procedures that go against the Church"s teachings. Several federal laws in place since the 1970s protect the rights of health care workers with moral or religious objections (Salmon, Washington Post, 7/3). Nancy Berlinger, deputy director of the Hastings Center, said that conscience laws also "are on the books in almost every state." She added, "The idea was that when abortion moved from being an illegal procedure, therefore something that you did not offer in a hospital, to being a legal procedure, therefore something that you might offer in a hospital, there was a move to protect providers ... from having to participate in abortions." However, not all conscience laws are specific to abortion, NPR"s "Morning Edition" reports. For example, some allow providers to refuse to provide birth control, in vitro fertilization or end-of-life care (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 7/6).The Bush administration said its 2008 policy was designed to ensure that the federal laws are enforced. The policy would cut off federal funding to health care facilities and other entities that did not accommodate workers who refused to participate in certain procedures (Washington Post, 7/3). Joxel Garcia, the assistant secretary for health in the Bush administration who helped write the policy, said that it is necessary because few health care workers are aware of the protections. He added that the policy gives health workers "a mechanism to seek help" through HHS.However, critics of the Bush administration"s policy contend that it would widely expand the scope of health care covered by the policy and the type of health care workers who could object to procedures. Berlinger said, "Words like belief, when you talk about them in the context of health care, aren"t just anything you might think of." She noted that a "false belief about science or the promotion of ambiguity where things can be disambiguated," such as the claim that birth control is equivalent to abortion, "is not ethical" ("Morning Edition," NPR, 7/6).Obama"s plan to replace the policy has stoked concern from Catholic health care providers that they would be forced to perform abortions, sterilizations and other procedures that go against Catholic teachings (Washington Post, 7/3). A recent survey conducted for the Christian Medical Association found that 90% of doctors surveyed said that "they will quit their practices before violating their conscience," according to David Stevens, executive director of CMA. Stevens said that repealing the Bush administration"s rule "sends a clear message: It"s open season on health care professionals of conscience -- discriminate at will" ("Morning Edition," NPR, 7/6).Obama on Friday also said that although he and the pope have areas of "deep agreement ... there are going to be some areas where we"ve got some disagreements," such as abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research. The president will meet with the pope on July 10, while he is in Europe for a summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. Obama Addresses Catholic Concerns on Pregnancy PreventionObama also discussed opposition to the inclusion of comprehensive sex education and contraception in any legislative pac
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Novel Discovery In Dendritic Cell Signalling Pathways Pave The Way For New Therapeutic Targets
Scientists from A*STAR"s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) and the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, have discovered another signaling pathway for the activation and apoptosis, or programmed cell death, of dendritic cells[1] . This discovery was published in the advanced online publication of Nature on 15 Jun 2009.
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Obama Campaign Contributors Being Asked To Donate To Effort Supporting Health Care Reform

The Washington Times on Friday examined how President Obama"s "former campaign apparatus is cranking up a full-tilt drive for passage of a health care overhaul this year" by "tapping his 13-million-strong e-mail list" for financial contributions to fund advertising efforts, hire staff and open election-style offices. The group -- launched in January as Organizing for America, or OFA2, a unit under the Democratic National Committee -- sent supporters an e-mail this week asking them for their time and money to fight "special interest lobbyists and partisan ideologues" that might attempt to "water down" health care reform. Mitch Stewart, the group"s executive director, wrote that contributions would be used to organize "local educational events" and to "bring constituent voices straight to Congress, and make sure real life stories are heard louder than the lobbyists" spin" (Bellantoni, Washington Times, 5/15). Single-Payer System Not on Table, Obama Says Obama on Thursday said that a single-payer system will not be a consideration in efforts for health reform because the main objective is to improve the current employer-based health care system, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports. Speaking at a town-hall meeting in New Mexico, he acknowledged that a single-payer plan would be the ideal approach if he had to re-develop the health care system, but he said that many people already are satisfied with the existing system that involves private insurers (AP/San Jose Mercury News, 5/15). "It may not have everything I want in there or everything you want in there, but it will be a vast improvement over what we currently have," Obama told attendees (Washington Times, 5/15). Lilly Executive Reiterates Stance Against Public Plan Eli Lilly President and CEO John Lechleiter on Thursday restated his opposition to a public plan as part of health reform efforts, saying such a system would restrict innovation of new, more effective forms of treatments and medical technologies, the Indianapolis Star reports. In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Lechleiter recalled some of the arguments he made in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece (Russell/Groppe, Indianapolis Star, 5/15). He said, "There is simply no example, worldwide, of a robust private health insurance market co-existing with a government plan that"s open to all." He noted that his company"s three priorities for health reform include open access to health care markets, market-based drug pricing that is "undistorted by government interventions" and regulations preserving intellectual property for biologic drugs (Hunt, CongressDaily, 5/15). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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