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Biovista Inc. Announces Positive Efficacy Results In A Pre-Clinical Trial Of Its BVA-601 Repositioned Drug For Epilepsy
Biovista Inc. announced that BVA-601, its small-molecule drug targeting epilepsy, has shown positive results in the Kainic acid murine model of temporal lobe epilepsy. BVA-601, an existing drug that Biovista repositioned in epilepsy, exhibits both anti-epileptic and neuroprotective activity. In this pre-clinical trial, BVA-601 induced a statistically significant decrease of epileptic activity in mice pre-treated with Kainic acid.
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New York Becomes First State To Allow Payment For Donating Eggs For Stem Cell Research
New York"s Empire State Stem Cell Board earlier this month decided to allow embryonic stem cell researchers who receive state funding to compensate women for donating their eggs for use in research, making New York the first state to enact such a policy, the Washington Post reports (Stein, Washington Post, 6/26). According to the New York Times, the New York state Legislature in 2007 allotted $600 million for an 11-year stem cell research plan (Nelson, New York Times, 6/26). Under the board"s decisions, researchers receiving the state funding may pay women up to $10,000 to compensate them for the time, discomfort and expenses associated with egg donation. David Hohn, vice chair of the board"s two committees that endorsed the decision, said that the board "could not distinguish ethically between the payment for in vitro fertilization, which is very well precedented, and the compensation for donation for research." The board said researchers should follow the same guidelines as infertility clinics that receive donated eggs for infertile couples. Under those guidelines, payments exceeding $5,000 must be justified, and those exceeding $10,000 are considered excessive (Washington Post, 6/26). Robert Klitzman, director of the master"s degree program in bioethics at Columbia University and a member of the stem cell board"s ethics committee, said the payments will be carefully evaluated by an institutional review board (New York Times, 6/26).The Post reports that the decision goes against policies in other states that offer funding for embryonic stem cell research, as well as against current guidelines from scientific organizations like the National Academy of Sciences (Washington Post, 6/26). NAS guidelines, for example, prohibit paying women for eggs used in stem cell research. Similarly, the internal guidelines for New York-based groups like Rockefeller University, Cornell University and the Sloan-Kettering Institute prohibit financial compensation for donated eggs. However, researchers say that efforts to recruit unpaid donors have been unsuccessful and that the board"s decision will give New York an advantage in stem cell research (New York Times, 6/26). The decision was welcomed by scientists and other proponents of stem cell research, who said it will allow them to further research in areas like therapeutic cloning. The process, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, involves replacing the genetic material in a human egg with genes from the nucleus of a patient"s cell. The egg is then developed into an early embryo, which, in theory, could be used to produce stem cells that the patient"s immune system would not reject. Although the procedure has been unsuccessful so far, researchers say the board"s decision will help attract more donors, which will allow for more experiments. Egg donation involves weeks of hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries and a painful egg extraction procedure, which carries rare but serious risks. Other attempts at soliciting women to donate eggs for stem cell research have been unsuccessful, according to the Post.Some critics of the board"s decision said that paying women for eggs could lead to exploitation, especially for low-income women. Thomas Berg -- a Roman Catholic priest who is director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person and a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Board"s ethics committee -- said that in the current economic recession, paying a woman $10,000 to participate in a research project is an "undue inducement." He added that he thinks it "manipulates women" and "creates a trafficking in human body parts." Other opponents of the decision questioned if compensating women who donate eggs for research is indeed equivalent to the process for infertility treatments. Jonathan Moreno, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said that donors recognize that egg donation for infertility treatments is a "very concrete good for society" but that "you can"t be sure any biological material you collect for research wi
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Interest Groups Crowd Airwaves, Pursue Lawmakers
"The increasingly heated fight over health-care legislation is saturating the summer airwaves, with groups on all sides of the debate pouring tens of millions of dollars into advertising campaigns designed to push the cause of reform forward, slow it down or stop it in its tracks," the Washington Post reports. So far, drug makers, labor groups, Democrats and Republicans - among others - have spent $52 million to finance the ad campaigns, a heady start that could lead to a "record-breaking legislative battle."
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Obama's Focus On Health Care Crucial To Reform

"After a week of international diplomacy, President Obama returns to Washington this week facing an even greater diplomatic challenge: nudging the large and controversial health-care reform package toward consensus on Capitol Hill," The Washington Post reports. Despite media reports of challenges including "the virtual wall of opposition among Republicans," "resistance among conservative Blue Dog Democrats over the potential cost," and "nervousness among progressives that the White House might compromise too much on a public insurance option," officials at the White House "remain publicly optimistic." White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that the issues are just part of "the nature of what we"re doing," and that "we"ve never, on universal coverage, been this close to the goal line." But "an administration loyalist who is deep into the health-care battle, and who was decidedly more optimistic a few weeks ago, offered a counter to Emanuel"s assessment. "I think the headlines are accurate," he said. "Things are not going as well as I would have liked for a lot of reasons."" The Post reports that "pessimists are also correct in asserting that the battle has reached a critical stage and that, after significant movement earlier in the year, there are fissures opening up that threaten the prospects of crossing the goal line." The Obama administration has managed to keep stakeholders at the table and ad wars at bay, but "Part of the administration"s success in keeping everyone involved, however, has relied on deferring the hardest decisions," such as how to pay for reform, "and that has disrupted the earlier momentum" in Congress (Balz, 7/12). Meanwhile, USA Today reports that the August deadline for reform is increasingly in jeopardy. "Obama sought that deadline based on the belief that come fall, members of Congress will be focused on re-election campaigns and won"t want to work on potentially controversial legislation. Near the end of last week"s trip to Russia, Italy and Ghana, Obama told reporters that he doesn"t consider August a "do-or-die" deadline. But "I really want to get it done by the August recess." Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "said Sunday that the White House will not mircromanage Congress. Any plan to overhaul the system "needs to be owned by the House and the Senate," she told CNN"s "State of the Union." But "Some analysts question that strategy. "The White House has trusted delegation as their political strategy; they"re leaving it to the legislators," says Darrell West, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution think tank. "I think the White House really needs to show leadership, and I think if they did that many Democrats would follow." Obama has speeches planned this week in New York and Michigan, and he said he will try to calm anxiety" (Hall, 7/13). Bloomberg: "Grappling over how to pay for the bill and how much of a role government should play in insurance, Senate Democrats are increasingly saying they want Obama at the table," but "Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, countered in an interview that some senators are "quite happy about them doing their job, and the president doing his job." Emanuel himself has gotten more engaged, visiting Capitol Hill at least twice last week. He met with House Democrats to assure them Obama was in favor of a government-sponsored insurance plan to compete with industry players such as Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Inc." (Jensen and Chen, 7/13). Roll Call: "Despite President Barack Obama"s claim Friday that the White House has jumped "with both feet" into the ongoing health care negotiations, Capitol Hill critics are charging the president with treading too lightly and warned that a heavier hand is needed to keep the process on track. Although some disagree, Senate Democratic s expressed worries in recent days that the push for health care reform could drown in a sea of Democratic infighting and Republican opposition without more direct presidential involvement. Lobbyists monitoring the health care talks - and some lawmakers - agreed. "If this is your top domestic agenda item, you"ve got to get your hands dirty," a senior Democratic Senate aide said. "If you look historically, there"s been too much White House involvement. This time, there hasn"t been enough."" (Drucker, 7/13). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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