Pfizer Inc. is canceling advertisements for the cholesterol pill Lipitor featuring artificial heart inventor Robert Jarvik, as Congress is investigating whether the commercials are misleading, Bloomberg News reports. Congress began probing the ads in January because Jarvik, who appears to be acting as a doctor giving medical advice, isn’t licensed to practice medicine. Pfizer spent [Sign in to read the full article...]
Wait list deaths among heart transplant candidates have dramatically decreased since a 2006 Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network policy change in the sequence of heart allocation, according to early data shared at the OPTN/United Network for Organ Sharing Board of Directors Meeting on Feb. 21. “There have not been major changes in the makeup of [Sign in to read the full article...]
The OPTN/UNOS’ Board of Directors has withdrawn the probation status for Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego. The Board had placed Sharp on probation in September 2006 based on functional inactivity involving its pancreas transplant program. The center was allowed to continue transplant activity while under probationary status. “Sharp has made a series of corrective [Sign in to read the full article...]
Scientists at the University of California-Los Angeles have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells — without using embryos or eggs. Directed by scientists Kathrin Plath and William Lowry, the UCLA researchers used genetic alteration to turn back the clock on human skin cells and create cells [Sign in to read the full article...]
The picture of smiling, 8-year-old Sarah Dickman on a flier was enough to convince Laura Bolan, a stranger, to donate her kidney. The suburban Atlanta girl was born with the genetic disease juvenile nephronophthisis, which slowly destroys the kidneys. Without treatment, it can kill a child before the age of 15. Dickman’s parents had added [Sign in to read the full article...]