Genentech braces for blockbuster FDA decision on pertuzumab for breast cancer

  June 7, 2012 | By John Carroll By the end of day tomorrow we should know whether Genentech's latest blockbuster hopeful on the cancer front has earned an FDA approval or faces a delay. The agency has a Friday PDUFA deadline to hit after providing pertuzumab a priority review on some significant data on the drug's ability to stall breast cancer when combined with Herceptin (trastuzumab).  Vontobel analysts have projected peak potential sales of pertuzumab at $1.8 billion, though Genentech has yet to publicly discuss what it will charge for the treatment.  In an article on Xconomy today, Luke Timmerman offers an elegant description of the way researchers zeroed in on a new approach to breast cancer, proving that adding a separate antibody with a fresh target on HER2 molecules could add months to a patient's progression-free survival rate. That came after the drug offered only modest benefits as a standalone therapy.

抗鬱劑 能抑制腫瘤

‧聯合新聞網 2012/06/07 約四分之一的癌症患者有憂鬱症傾向，馬偕醫院與陽明大學最近在動物實驗中研究發現，一種抗憂鬱劑「樂活優」，雖不能直接殺死癌細胞，但可以增強小鼠的免疫力，抑制腫瘤生長。【聯合晚報╱記者黃玉芳／台北報導】  約四分之一的癌症患者有憂鬱症傾向，馬偕醫院與陽明大學最近在動物實驗中研究發現，一種抗憂鬱劑「樂活優」，雖不能直接殺死癌細胞，但可以增強小鼠的免疫力，抑制腫瘤生長。  台北馬偕醫院精神科主任方俊凱表示，曾遇過乳癌患者不到一年復發，讓她情緒沮喪、有憂鬱傾向。精神科給藥治療後意外發現，幾年過去她的病情都沒惡化。後來又有結腸癌等患者有類似情形，興起他進行這項實驗的念頭。  方俊凱說，抗憂鬱劑「樂活優」上市多年，在台灣臨床也使用逾10年，對癌症治療不容易產生交互作用，常用於治療患者憂鬱情緒。  動物實驗發現，雖然樂活優沒辦法直接殺死癌細胞，但對罹患結腸癌的小鼠，每天持續給予固定劑量後，明顯發現罹癌小鼠的活力增加，因為提升免疫力，進而抑制大腸癌腫瘤生長。  陽明大學生物醫學影像暨放射科學系教授黃正仲說，對其他癌症細胞應該也有相同效果。研究結果已被國際知名期刊「公共科學圖書館期刊」(PLoS One)接受，即將刊登。  由於樂活優有嗜睡、變胖等副作用，仍須經醫師處方，不建議癌症患者自行服用。方俊凱也說，癌症與情緒確實有關連，患者若活力不佳、心情不好，也常會影響繼續治療的意願。同時國內外研究結果也顯示，癌症患者常合併有憂鬱症、或是情緒障礙的現象。  因此他認為癌症患者若有憂鬱傾向，應該積極治療，心情變好不憂鬱，也有助於癌症病情的控制，更因為腫瘤生長變慢，可以多替患者爭取一些時間，改善生活品質。

樂活優( MIRTAZAPINE抗憂鬱劑) 抗癌 !!

樂活優能有效抑制腫瘤生長 【2012/06/07 11:54 報導 】   國內外研究顯示，癌症病人常合併有憂鬱症或情緒障礙的現象，醫界發現，抗憂鬱的藥物「樂活優」，用於癌症病患不但憂鬱狀況改善，還能抑制腫瘤生長，這項研究成果也將刊登在國際知名期刊上。(吳霈蓁報導)  馬偕醫院精神科主任方俊凱表示，根據馬偕醫院精神科的研究，有一半的癌症病人有情緒上的障礙， 而有四分之一的癌症病人有憂鬱症的傾向。方俊凱說：(t)「臨床上發現，用了樂活優之後，某些病人的生活品質變好了之外，壽命、復發情形有些不同，發現這個之後，就和陽明大學生物醫學影像暨放射科學系黃正仲教授合作，進行動物研究。」  方俊凱表示，這項研究花了三年的時間，在小鼠模式下證實，帶有大腸癌細胞的小鼠使用了樂活優，不但活力增加、免疫力提升、同時腫瘤壞死因子也顯著下降。而黃正仲教授則認為，這項發現推估可以應用到其它癌症的患者，而這項研究成果也已經被國際知名期刊「公共科學圖書館期刊」接受並即將刊登。

FP7: Alzheimer's detection nanoscope

Better Alzheimer's detection: new EU-funded project to develop nanoscope  [Date: 2012-06-07]A new research project that will pioneer a nanoscope to screen patient cells and potentially help with the early detection of Alzheimer's disease has just kicked off.With a boost of more than EUR 4 million in funding from the 'Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the LANIR ('Label free nanoscopy using infra red') project will bring together researchers from 11 partner institutes across Belgium, Germany, Ireland, France, Italy and Romania. The consortium is made up of both small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and academic partners.Set to run until 2012, the central aim of LANIR is to help find a way of detecting Alzheimer's disease in its early stages, as this is critical to developing effective treatments for the condition. At present, there is no such test available, despite the 7.7 million new cases each year worldwide, as well as 800 000 new patients in Europe who are affected by other forms of dementia. Alzheimer's disease is also directly responsible for increasing dependency costs among the elderly.The LANIR team will develop a nanoscope technique that works by deploying infrared (IR) radiation as a source of detection. It would be able to see features as small as 70 nanometres in lateral dimension, which is comparable to the size of a virus. The LANIR prototype will allow direct imaging of the chemistry and the structure of very small 'buried' features, without having to destroy the surface of a cell or a material.Infrared nanoscopy (IRN) is based on Infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS), which measures the IR absorption in a material by recording the IR light reflected by or transmitted through the sample. When an incident IR wavelength matches with the specific (vibrational) excitations of chemical bonds in the probed molecules or materials, the IR absorption increases resonantly. IR spectroscopy thus reveals characteristic signatures of the chemical structures and molecular species.IRN's two main features are advanced laser techniques and spatio-temporal optical patterning. Chemical fingerprints of a sample can be imaged point by point at nanometre resolution by scanning over the pump-probe pattern on the sample.CORDIS News spoke to Project Manager John Mulcahy from the Materials and Surface Science Institute at the University of Limerick, Ireland, the LANIR coordinating institution.He comments on the project: 'The infrared nanoscope being developed in LANIR will provide tools for use as an early diagnostic device for Alzheimer's disease, which will allow timely intervention against the causes of reversible dementias, the start of therapies that can slow disease progression, the start of therapies that can potentiate the cognitive performance of patients by exploiting the non-complete impairment of their neuronal circuits, and the implementation of measures that reduce the effects of the co-morbidity associated with dementia.'He also described how the nanoscope will help with the timely implementation by patients and their families of the measures necessary to solve problems related to the disease's progression.John Mulcahy outlined how important EU funding is to the success of the project and the significance of the participation of the six SME partners for getting the table-top prototype to market: 'The transnational nature of FP7 Collaborative projects such as LANIR is particularly beneficial to bring together leading microscopists, spectroscopists and biologists under one umbrella beside industry leaders, to develop a new nanoscope and relevant applications of the nanoscope. FP7 funding leverages significant funding to bring this groundbreaking technique to a commercial reality in the shortest possible time. The specific emphasis on SMEs in FP7 projects has also been important to ensure participation from innovative and research and development (R&D)-oriented SMEs, and interfacing them with top-level expertise and infrastructure available in academic and public research bodies, in order to bring forward this groundbreaking technology. It would not have been possible to progress the technology otherwise.'As well as the prototype, table-top, multimodal IRN, the project will also construct three research IR microscopes, which will routinely image at a resolution less than 1 000 nm in IR and less than 100 nm in visible light. These three research IR microscopes will be located in Limerick in Ireland, Bucharest in Romania and Genoa in Italy.Mr Mulcahy says this ensures the benefits of high-end nanoscopy will be spread out across the whole of Europe, a feat he describes as 'impossible without FP7 funding'.

大江生醫 佈局上海百岳特生技…功能性飲料

大江生醫：知悉董事及經理人從事大陸地區之競業情形 鉅亨網新聞中心　　2012-06-07  第三十四條　第22款  1.事實發生日:101/06/072.經理人或董事之名稱:  董事長:楊武男  董事:關淑君  董事兼經理人:林詠翔  3.所擔任該大陸地區事業之公司名稱及職務:  大陸地區事業之公司名稱:百岳特生物技術(上海)有限公司  董事長:楊武男  董事:關淑君  董事兼經理人:林詠翔  4.所擔任該大陸地區事業地址:上海市金山工業區月工路888號1幢24區。  5.所擔任該大陸地區事業營業項目:從事功能性飲料之生產製造等。  6.對本公司財務業務之影響程度:  該公司為本公司100%轉投資公司並採權益法認列，故無重大影響。  7.經理人如有對該大陸地區事業從事投資者，其投資金額及持股比例:不適用。  8.公司擬採行措施:將於最近一次董事會解除董事及經理人競業禁止之限制，  並於最近一次股東會解除董事競業禁止之限制。  9.其他應敘明事項:無。