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New Health Secretary Sets Out Vision For A People Centred NHS, UK
A new era in the National Health Service that builds on targets achieved and prioritises quality of care was set out by new Health Secretary Andy Burnham today.
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FTC Report On Biosimilars Is Fundamentally Flawed
The following statement was issued by Jeff Joseph, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Vice President of Communications, in response to a new report on biosimilars released today by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):
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Study Shows Teen Contraception Use Declining, Level Of Sexual Activity Unchanged
After years of declining teenage pregnancy rates and improved teen contraception use during the 1990s and early 2000s, the trends appeared to have flattened or even reversed among some groups of teens in recent years, according to a study from Columbia University"s Mailman School of Public Health and the Guttmacher Institute, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Researchers found that from 2003 to 2007, teens" contraceptive use declined by 10%, while their level of sexual activity did not change. The decrease in contraceptive use was particularly prevalent among black teens. The figures take into account the rate of contraception use as well as the types of contraceptives used, as methods vary in effectiveness. Teen condom use leveled off and in some cases declined, according to the study. The study also reported that the teen birth rate increased by 5% from 2005 to 2007. According to the study"s authors, the findings suggest a link between declining teen contraception use and the rise in abstinence-only education during former President George W. Bush"s administration. President Obama"s fiscal year 2010 budget proposal calls for redirecting some abstinence-only funds toward increased comprehensive sex education, the Monitor reports. In addition to the effects of abstinence-only sex education, the decline in condom use also could be tied to lessening concern about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. A shift in the teen population to include a higher number of Hispanics -- who have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and birth -- also could contribute to the findings. Laura Lindberg, one of the study"s authors and a senior research associate at Guttmacher, said, "In the end, this story is really about the loss of momentum." She added that although the statistical changes are small, "they raise concern about what the next few years will bring in this country." Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, noted that the proportion of births to unmarried women, particularly among women ages 20 to 24, also is on the upswing (Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor, 6/18).
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Good News For Some Hard-To-Treat Hepatitis C Patients

In a multi-center trial led by a Saint Louis University researcher, investigators found that a new combination therapy of daily consensus interferon and ribavirin helps some hepatitis C patients who have not responded to previous treatment. The findings, published in the June issue of Hepatology, offer a new option for hepatitis C patients, and may be effective even for those patients with factors that make their condition difficult to treat. "This represents an important advance for difficult to treat hepatitis C patients who have failed to respond to traditional therapy," said Bruce Bacon, M.D., director of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and co-director of the Saint Louis University Liver Center . About 4 million people in the U.S. have been infected with hepatitis C; an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 people die from complications each year in this country. Hepatitis C is caused by a virus, transmitted by contact with blood, and may initially be asymptomatic. For patients who develop chronic hepatitis C infection, inflammation of the liver may develop, leading to fibrosis and cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), as well as other complications including liver cancer and death. For patients with chronic hepatitis C, the prognosis varies. About half fully recover after an initial course of pegylated interferon and ribavirin anti-viral therapy that may last from six months to a year. The remaining patients, known as non-responders, may improve but the virus is not eliminated. These patients are at greatest risk for worsening, and subsequent treatments have shown limited effectiveness for this group. In addition, those with genotype 1 (a particular genetic variation of the virus), those with high baseline virus levels, those with advanced liver disease and African American patients are all less likely to respond well to treatment. The study looked at 515 patients at 44 different sites. Patients were given either one of two doses of daily consensus interferon and ribavirin, or no treatment. For patients with less severe liver damage who had shown some response to initial treatment, the success rate was above 30 percent. The overall results showed that, for patients who had been unresponsive to initial treatment, consensus interferon and ribavirin worked for about 7 percent of patients given the lower dose and about 11 percent of patients given the higher dose of consensus interferon and ribavirin. "This study shows that select patients who have failed to respond to prior therapy are candidates for retreatment with consensus interferon and ribavirin," Bacon said. The study, Daily-Dose Consensus Interferon and Ribavirin: Efficacy of Combined Therapy (DIRECT) was funded by Valeant Pharmaceuticals and 3 Rivers Pharmaceuticals. Carrie Bebermeyer Saint Louis University


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