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UAW To Accept Up To 20% Of GM Stock; Agrees To Concessions On Retiree Health Care Obligations, Labor Rules
United Auto Workers leaders on Tuesday agreed to accept up to 20% of General Motors stock, as well as concessions on labor rules and retiree health care obligations, as the automaker faces a June 1 deadline to restructure or seek bankruptcy protection, the Detroit News reports (Aguilar/Shepardson, Detroit News, 5/27). Under the deal, the voluntary employees" beneficiary association would receive 17.5% of common GM stock, $6.5 billion of preferred shares, a $2.5 billion note and warrants equal to 2.5% of GM"s stock (Reuters/USA Today, 5/27). In addition, the VEBA would receive $585 million annually in interest income on its preferred stock (Detroit News, 5/27). Another concession included in the tentative deal is the elimination of dental, vision and some prescription drug coverage for hourly retirees (Shepardson/Aguilar, Detroit News, 5/26). UAW also would hold a seat on the GM board of directors (Cho et al., Washington Post, 5/27).Because of a proposed deal announced earlier this month, the Treasury Department and UAW, together, are to own 89% of GM"s stock, meaning that if the UAW-GM deal is approved, the Treasury would own about a 70% share of GM"s stock (Detroit News, 5/26). Current bondholders would hold about a 10% stake in the company (Washington Post, 5/27). The remaining 1% would be held by existing shareholders (Detroit News, 5/26).The total 20% is about half of what was anticipated (Higgins, Detroit Free Press, 5/26). The "significant concessions" made by UAW, which was eligible to receive up to 39% of GM"s equity through the VEBA, "could mean that [GM] is attempting to appease unsecured bondholders, who charged that the UAW was getting a better deal," according to the News (Detroit News, 5/27). UAW said the revised agreement with GM was necessary for the automaker to survive, but the deal will leave hundreds of thousands of GM retirees paying higher out-of-pocket medical expenses, the Wall Street Journal reports (Stoll et al., Wall Street Journal, 5/27).UAW members are scheduled to vote on the agreement on Wednesday and Thursday (Detroit News, 5/26). However, "[e]ven with UAW approval, GM is still likely to file for bankruptcy, since bondholders are unlikely to swallow deep concessions," according to the News (Detroit News, 5/27).
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Brain Activity Stablilized By Dynamic Molecular Mechanism
In the brain, many types of synaptic proteins are spatio-temporally regulated to maintain synaptic activity at a constant level. Here, the Japanese research group led by Professor Masaki Fukata, Drs. Yuko Fukata and Jun Noritake in National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, found that two types of palmitoylating enzymes finely-tune the location and function of a major synaptic protein, PSD-95, in different ways. They also found that this mechanism contributes to keeping synaptic activity stable when synaptic activity dynamically changes. The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) supported this study. They report the finding in Journal of Cell Biology published on July 13, 2009.
News of the day
Tiny Rifts Create Fragility Of Brittle Bone Disease - New Research Published In Biophysical Journal
The weak tendons and fragile bones characteristic of osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, stem from a genetic mutation that causes the incorrect substitution of a single amino acid in the chain of thousands of amino acids making up a collagen molecule, the basic building block of bone and tendon.
Public Health

ZymoGenetics Reports Encouraging Phase 2 Results In Renal Cell Cancer For IL-21 With Nexavar(R)

ZymoGenetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZGEN) announced positive final results from a Phase 2 clinical trial in patients receiving 2nd or 3rd line therapy for advanced renal cell carcinoma with the combination of recombinant Interleukin 21 (IL-21) and Nexavar® (sorafenib) tablets. The combination demonstrated considerable clinical benefit, with an overall response rate (as assessed by an independent review) of 21%, a disease control rate of 82%, and progression-free survival (PFS) of 5.7 months in this heavily pretreated population. Results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. "These results add to the case for efficacy and safety of IL-21 when used with Nexavar in patients previously treated for renal cell cancer and point to a meaningful benefit of IL-21 when used in combination with a targeted therapy," said John Thompson, M.D., University of Washington and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. "The combination of IL-21 with Nexavar could be a promising treatment for renal cell cancer, particularly for patients after failure of prior therapies." Thirty-three patients were enrolled in the open-label, multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial conducted at 14 sites in the U.S. and Canada. Study endpoints were safety, tumor response evaluated by RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors) criteria, and PFS. Tumor response was assessed both by the investigator and by independent radiologic review. Patients with metastatic renal cell cancer received 2nd or 3rd line therapy consisting of IL-21 (30 mcg/kg on days 1-5 and 15-19 of each 7-week treatment course) in combination with the approved dose of Nexavar (400 mg PO BID continuously). The majority of adverse events and lab abnormalities were grade 1 or 2. Grade ò‰¥3 adverse events considered possibly related to study drug (IL-21 or Nexavar) and occurring in ò‰¥3 patients included hypophosphatemia (42%), hand-foot syndrome (24%), rash (27%), thrombocytopenia (9%), and neutropenia (9%). Overall, the combination of IL-21 and Nexavar was tolerable in an out patient setting, with some patients staying on treatment for up to a year. The independent review of tumor response was completed for 33 patients and showed 7 confirmed partial response (21%), 1 unconfirmed partial response (3%), 19 stable disease (58%), and 4 progressive disease (12%) and 2 unevaluable patients, for an overall disease control rate of 82% . Median PFS was 5.7 months or 24.6 weeks. The final Phase 2 results in renal cell cancer indicated that IL-21 combined with Nexavar was well tolerated and is associated with meaningful anti-tumor activity both in terms of tumor response and duration of disease control (i.e. PFS) in patients who have failed prior therapy for advanced renal cell cancer. About Interleukin 21 (IL-21) Despite the positive impact of targeted therapies on treatment for renal cell cancer, the efficacy of these agents appears to decrease beyond the first-line setting. There is an unmet need for novel therapies after failure of the targeted agents. IL-21, a cytokine that enhances CD8+ T cell and NK cell activity, has single-agent anti-tumor activity (J Clin Oncol 26:2034, 2008). ZymoGenetics has worldwide rights to IL-21 and is developing rIL-21 for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma. ZymoGenetics


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