A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology and Albany Medical College has illuminated the important role of natural killer (NK) T cells in Lyme disease, demonstrating that the once little understood white blood cells are central to clearing the bacterial infection and reducing the intensity and duration of arthritis [...]

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL - News) today announced that members of Rigel’s senior management team will host a conference call with simultaneous webcast to provide a company update on November 3, 2008 at 5:30 a.m. PST/8:30 a.m. EST.
To access the live call, please dial 800-265-0241 (domestic) or 617-847-8704 (international) 10 minutes prior to the [...]

Clearwater-based Orthopedic Development Corporation (ODC), the maker of the TruFUSE® spinal surgery system, has accused a rival of infringing both the patent and trade dress for a drill guide in one of the first patent design suits to be filed since the Federal Circuit handed down its standard-altering Egyptian Goddess ruling.
ODC lodged the suit, as [...]

HealthBookSummaries.com, the downloadable health book summary service created by Mike Adams and Kevin Gianni, has just released its summary of the book Astaxanthin: King of the Carotenoids by Bob Capelli. The downloadable summary is available now at http://www.HealthBookSummaries.com.
Astaxanthin: King of the Carotenoids is a fascinating book that provides an in-depth look into the wide-ranging health [...]

Genentech Inc reported on Tuesday that sales of its cancer drug Avastin topped Wall Street estimates and its shares rose more than 3 percent, despite third-quarter earnings that fell short of analyst expectations due to higher costs.
U.S. sales of Avastin, widely considered the most important barometer of Genentech’s growth, rose 18 percent to $704 million, [...]

Genmab A/S announced today it has reached the sixth milestone for ofatumumab under the terms of its collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline . A milestone payment of approximately DKK 29 million was triggered by the first patient receiving treatment in the ofatumumab Phase I study in relapsed/refractory follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia in Japan.
Ofatumumab is [...]

As has been previously announced, Q-Med has decided to focus on the esthetics business. Sales and marketing of Hospital Healthcare products will be done via partners and there will be no further in-house development of new products within this area. This change leads to redundancies at Q-Med’s facility in Uppsala. Despite the fact that Q-Med [...]

Evotec AG announced today that Phase I clinical studies for its proprietary, small molecule P2X7 receptor antagonist have been initiated.
The P2X7 receptor is an ATP-gated ion channel primarily expressed on cells of the immune system and is thought to play an important role in inflammatory processes through the regulation of a number of proinflammatory cytokines. [...]

Half the residents of New Orleans were suffering from poor mental and physical health more than a year after their homes and community were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, according to research published in the September issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing.
Researchers from Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, California, spoke [...]

After months of frustration and misdiagnoses — slipped disc, arthritis, depression, psychosomatic illness — the woman finally was freed from her debilitating backache. The cause of her pain?
Living in a cramped one-room apartment with her four children, the woman had been sleeping in a bathtub.
And who solved this medical mystery?
A nurse practitioner — someone who [...]