| Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Announces Positive Phase II Trial ...
Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPRX), a biopharmaceutical company that acquires, in-licenses, develops and commercializes prescription drugs for the treatment of drug addiction, announced positive initial top-line results from an investigator-initiated Phase II double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, which demonstrates that vigabatrin is effective for the treatment of cocaine addiction. Catalyst's lead compound, CPP-109, is bioequivalent to vigabatrin.
This 103 subject trial is the first randomized, double-blind, placebo- controlled clinical trial studying vigabatrin's effectiveness in treating cocaine addiction. These data show that a statistically significantly greater number of subjects treated with vigabatrin were able to abstain from cocaine usage during the last three weeks of the dosing period compared to those receiving placebo.
'Bupe' to draw closer scrutiny
The addiction treatment drug buprenorphine will come under closer scrutiny through a new federal initiative to track the deaths of opiate addicts taking it or methadone.
U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration officials hope the new tracking system will significantly improve the safety and quality of drug treatment for more than 400,000 addicts across the country, including thousands in Baltimore.
A series of articles published in The Sun in December showed that while buprenorphine can be a highly effective addiction medicine, misuse of the drug is on the rise. Some people have died when taking buprenorphine with other drugs. But the number of deaths is unknown, because medical examiners in Maryland and most other states don't test for buprenorphine in overdose deaths.
Man who demanded methadone at drug store sought
It is a drug designed to help people break addictions. One Tucson man wanted it so badly, he was willing to rob a pharmacy to get it. It happened yesterday at the Walgreens location at Ina and La Cholla. A man showed a pharmacist a gun and walked away with methadone. Nevertheless, thanks to some remarkably clear surveillance video, he may not be on the run for long. The suspect is seen fully-clothed and wore sunglasses and a hat to hide his face in the surveillance video. "She didn't' notice it at first," Detective Shaun George, from the Pima County Sheriff's Department, explains. The suspect looks around and into the camera once or twice, then asks for a prescription of methadone. Det.
Addiction genes can be tracked
NEW DELHI: Chinese scientists have devised a novel technique to identify genes and other biological pathways associated with drug addiction.
Their work attains significance as it may pave the way for potential ways to treat drug abuse and disorders.
"We have found 396 addiction-related genes and identified five pathways that are common to addiction to four different substances: cocaine, opium, nicotine and alcohol," the China Daily quoted Wei Liping, the director of the centre for bioinformatics of the life science college under Peking University, as saying.
"The research provides a more complete picture of drug addiction, as genetic factors contribute to about 60 per cent of the vulnerability to drug addiction," she said.
She said that tracking common pathways gives the hope that the effectiveness of therapies that target such pathways may be boosted to treat a wide range of addictive disorders.
Sleep Drugs Rouse Big Pharma
New York may be the "City That Never Sleeps," but the rest of the U.S. seems to be getting less shut-eye as well. Pharma and biotech companies are targeting sleeping disorders, with more than a dozen insomnia compounds in phase II and phase III clinical trials. Approximately 70 million people in the U.S. suffer regular or occasional insomnia, according to Steven Silver, a biotechnology equity analyst for Standard & Poor's. But only 10% to 15% seek treatment, in part because of the side effects associated with the current crop of insomnia drugs. An astonishing 25 million people suffer from chronic insomnia. But the medical profession increasingly believes treating insomnia is important, since lack of sleep can lead to serious disorders including heart disease. The Food & Drug Administration has approved several prescription drugs for insomnia, and many sufferers use PM formulations of popular over-the-counter painkillers.
Low-level Laser Therapy Clinics' Partnership Targets Helping People ...
LOS ANGELES, Calif., Nov. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Los Angeles, California based clinics, Aventi Hair Therapy and Freedom Laser Therapy, are joining forces to create a unique partnership for their nationwide licensing expansion of their health & cosmetic services. Aventi is the largest nationwide practitioner of Laser Hair Therapy, a safe procedure that assists in stopping hair loss, increasing hair thickness and boosting hair growth. Freedom Laser Therapy is the industry leader specializing in helping smokers break their nicotine addictions and lose weight through the usage of Low-level laser therapy. The laser devices used by each clinic are classified as non-significant risks by the FDA. Aventi and Freedom have treated thousands of Los Angeles residents to repair excessive hair loss and to quit smoking; and they are now in the process of expanding their branded services nationwide.
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