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Blogs Comment On Planned Parenthood Ad Campaign, Sex-Selective Abortion, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "A Radical Notion: Women"s Health Care as Mainstream," Cecile Richards, Huffington Post blogs: "To hammer ... home" the message that "Planned Parenthood and other essential community providers are the affordable, local access to basic preventive care that saves lives," the Planned Parenthood Action Center has introduced advertisements "educating the policy folks involved in fixing our health care system" about "why women"s health care needs to be taken care of in this mega-reform effort," Richards writes. She writes, "From cancer screenings to contraception to immunizations, the majority of women who go to women"s health care centers consider them their primary health care provider," adding, "In fact, more than 90% of what Planned Parenthood health centers do is preventive and primary care." According to Richards, "Essential community providers, including those who provide women"s health care, need to be part of any newly established health care system." She adds that "the three million patients who came to Planned Parenthood health centers last year can testify to it." Richards writes that "[f]amily planning and reproductive health care are unfortunately still not fully part of mainstream health care, even though 98% of women use contraception at some point in their lives -- there"s nothing more universal!" The "fact that women reproduce and, therefore, have different types of health care needs makes some folks on Capitol Hill go pale and start to sweat," Richards writes. She concludes, "Maybe one day we won"t need a special campaign to support women"s health," but "until then, Planned Parenthood is here to make sure women aren"t worse off after health care reform than before" (Richards, Huffington Post blogs, 6/18).~ "The Role of Medical Education in Preserving Abortion Access," Our Bodies, Our Blog: In response to a recent Salon opinion piece that examined whether there will be a next generation of abortion providers, the blog post discusses a few organizations that are "working to increase access to (accurate) abortion-related training." The blog includes links to Medical Students for Choice -- a group that "does student organizing and advocacy to influence medical school curricula, workshops ... and lectures on abortion techniques" -- and The Ryan Program -- which offers "funding, technical expertise, curriculum, workshops and other res to support training opportunities in abortion and contraception for ob-gyn residents." The blog entry also highlights the work of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, which partners with members of the American Medical Student Association "to provide "project in a box" materials for medical students wanting to access and influence their schools" curricula on sexual and reproductive health" (Our Bodies, Our Blog, 6/18). ~ "Regulating Abortion May Be OK But Not To Avoid Sex-Selection," Marianne Mollmann, Huffington Post blogs: "Sex-selective abortion raises a multitude of overlapping ethical concerns regarding eugenics, population control and provider privilege or knowledge," according to Mollmann, advocacy director for the Human Rights Watch"s Women"s Rights Division. Mollmann writes that recent media reports indicating that sex-selective abortion occurs among some ethnic communities in the U.S. "has generated new discussion about what to do -- indeed what to think -- about the practice here." She continues that the "effect of abortion regulations depends on the context and motivation," adding that "[f]rom a human rights perspective, the regulation of medical procedures and interventions is legitimate and indeed often necessary so long as they are based on full respect for the full range of human rights." It is "perhaps tempting to hope that banning sex-selective abortions would safeguard the gender balance of future generations," but the "criminalization of abortion for whatever reason has in the past led only to underground and unsafe prac
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Advaxis Receives FDA Response To Orphan Drug Filing

Advaxis, Inc. (OTCBB:ADXS) received the FDA letter late on June 1 denying the company"s request for Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for the use of ADXS11-001 in invasive cervix cancer. The FDA stated their market definition for invasive cervical cancer prevalence (including all those who had been cured) is over the 200,000 person cutoff. Further, the applicability of ADXS11-01 for a precursor condition, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) was considered by the ODD as an early manifestation of the disease. No prevalence estimate for CIN was provided in our original application. There was no issue raised about efficacy. Advaxis Chairman and CEO Thomas Moore commented, "When we announced this ODD filing, we said it was historically a 50% probability of getting approved. With an annual incidence of only 10,000 patients in the US diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer and a very poor prognosis if standard therapies fail, which they do for about half these patients, this appeared to be just what Orphan Drug was designed to encourage. The FDA Office of Orphan Products Development was very cooperative with us but we are naturally disappointed. "We have pending study activity in cervical cancer in collaboration with NCI and plan to conduct at least one additional off-shore study. Our Phase I results showed great promise. We will likely seek another regulatory route for this indication, Fast Track designation, for which we can apply in the near term. If approved, Fast Track provides similar advantages in regulatory acceleration, but provides no market exclusivity or the possibility of grant support from FDA." Advaxis, Inc.


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