A fee created to push oil and gas companies to plug methane leaks could be axed by the incoming Trump administration, hampering efforts to curb the potent greenhouse gas

Arriving in two boxes reminiscent of Apple product packaging – one for the chest piece (the part that contacts the body), and another for the detachable earpiece (tubes + ear tips) – the CORE 500 is clearly an upgrade from the Eko DUO stethoscope. Similar to its predecessor, the CORE 500 can be used with […]

On October 8, 2024, Drug Channels Institute will release our 2024-25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors. This report—our fifteenth edition—remains the most comprehensive, fact-based tool for understanding and analyzing the large and growing U.S. pharmaceutical distribution industry.

9 chapters, 350+ pages, 178 exhibits, 750+ endnotes: There is nothing else available that comes close to this valuable resource.

We are providing you with the opportunity to preorder this thoroughly updated, revised, and expanded 2024-25 edition at special discounted prices. This means that you can be among the first to access our new report. Those who preorder will receive a download link before October 8.

• Review pricing/license options and place a preorder

• Download a free pre-publication report overview (including key industry trends, What's New in this edition, the Table of Contents, and a List of Exhibits)

You can pay online with all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) or via PayPal. Click here to contact us if you would like to pay by corporate check or ACH.

Special preorder and launch pricing discounts will be valid through October 23, 2024.

Read on for more details.
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Today’s guest post comes from Timothy Nielsen, Vice President of Customer Success at AssistRx.

Timothy discusses the affordability and patient journey challenges of specialty-lite products for patients, manufacturers, and health care providers. He explains how AssistRx's Advanced Access Anywhere (AAA) solution streamlines processes for specialty-lite products and facilitates enrollment via a digital hub.

To learn more, register for AssistRx's free webinar on October 8: Meet Your Patients Where They Are & Gain Visibility: Even at Retail.

Read on for Timothy’s insights.
Read more »

I am pleased to announce Drug Channels Institute's new 2024–25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors, available for purchase and immediate download.

• Download a free report overview (including key industry trends, the Table of Contents, and a List of Exhibits)

• Review pricing/license options and download the full 2024-25 report

We’re offering special discounted pricing if you order before October 23, 2024.

2024–25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors—our 15th edition--remains the most comprehensive, fact-based tool for understanding and analyzing the large and growing U.S. pharmaceutical distribution industry. This 2024-25 edition includes substantial new material—outlined on page vii of the report overview.

9 chapters, 380+ pages, 178 exhibits, more than 750 endnotes: There is nothing else available that comes close to this valuable resource.

You can pay online with all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) or via PayPal. Click here to contact us if you would like to pay by corporate check or ACH.

Email Paula Fein (paula@drugchannels.net) if you’d like to bundle your report purchase with access to DCI’s video webinars.

If you preordered the report, you should have already received an email with download instructions last week. Please contact us if you did not receive your email.

Read on for some additional details.
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Here on Drug Channels, we have long highlighted the boom in provider-administered biosimilars. In contrast to the pharmacy market, adoption of these biosimilars is growing, prices are dropping, and formulary barriers continue to fall.

Novel transparency information reveals that this good news doesn’t always translate into savings. Below, we rely on a unique data set from Turquoise Health to examine how much four national commercial health plans—Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare—paid hospitals for Avastin and its two most significant biosimilar competitors.

As we demonstrate, health plans pay hospitals far above acquisition costs for biosimilars. What’s more, plans can pay hospitals more for a biosimilar than for the higher-cost reference product. The U.S. drug channel system is warping hospitals’ incentives to adopt biosimilars, while simultaneously raising costs for commercial plans.

The namesake of my alma mater once said: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” What would happen if we disinfected the entire channel?
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Today’s guest post comes from Chris Dowd, Senior VP of Market Development at ConnectiveRx.

Chris examines three key trends that will affect patient support programs: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), legal/regulatory battles over copay adjustment programs, and uncertainties following a national election. He then outlines three actions that should guide manufacturers' preparation.

To learn more, register for ConnectiveRx’s free webinar on December 11: The Perfect Storm? Patient Support Programming in 2025 and Beyond.

Read on for Chris’s insights.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a video:

Quizás sepa que la FDA es responsable de aprobar los medicamentos nuevos, como medicamentos de receta, genéricos, biosimilares y de venta libre, y de garantizar que esos medicamentos sean seguros, de alta calidad y funcionen como se supone que deben hacerlo. Pero nuestro trabajo no termina ahí. Continuamos monitoreando la seguridad y calidad de los medicamentos aprobados en los años venideros. Aprenda más sobre nuestro papel en la regulación de estos medicamentos.

Para obtener más información sobre el papel de la FDA en la regulación y la aprobación de medicamentos, visite nuestro sitio web en www.fda.gov/drugs/information-consumers-and-patients-drug...

Vea esta serie de tres partes: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0AE2C851E6968546

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a video:

Quizás sepa que la FDA es responsable de aprobar los medicamentos nuevos, como medicamentos de receta, genéricos, biosimilares y de venta libre, y de garantizar que esos medicamentos sean seguros, de alta calidad y funcionen como se supone que deben hacerlo. Pero nuestro trabajo no termina ahí. Continuamos monitoreando la seguridad y calidad de los medicamentos aprobados en los años venideros. Aprenda más sobre nuestro papel en la regulación de estos medicamentos.

Para obtener más información sobre el papel de la FDA en la regulación y la aprobación de medicamentos, visite nuestro sitio web en www.fda.gov/drugs/information-consumers-and-patients-drug...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a photo:

Catherine Dasenbrock, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Forensic Chemistry Center, speaks to guests prior to officially reopening the center during a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Sept. 24, 2024, celebrating the completion of the 64,000-square-foot expansion and renovation of the facility in Cincinnati, Ohio. The NFCC is a specialty laboratory that serves as the FDA’s national forensic laboratory providing specialized laboratory services in analytical chemistry and molecular/microbiology related to adulteration/contamination, counterfeiting, and product tampering of FDA regulated commodities including drugs, dietary supplements, foods, cosmetics, veterinary feeds, and medical devices.

FDA photo by Matthew MacRoberts

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a photo:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials and General Services Administration leaders officially reopen the National Forensic Chemistry Center during a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Sept. 24, 2024, highlighting the completion of the 64,000-square-foot expansion and renovation of the center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The NFCC is a specialty laboratory that serves as the FDA’s national forensic laboratory providing specialized laboratory services in analytical chemistry and molecular/microbiology related to adulteration/contamination, counterfeiting, and product tampering of FDA regulated commodities including drugs, dietary supplements, foods, cosmetics, veterinary feeds, and medical devices.

(From left)
Marie Maguire, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Headquarters Operations, Office of Criminal Investigations, FDA
James Sigg, Deputy Commissioner for Operations and Chief Operating Officer, Office of the Commissioner, FDA
Catherine Dasenbrock, Director, National Forensic Chemistry Center, Office of Inspections and Investigations (OII), FDA
Duane Satzger, Associate Director, Office of Medical Products and Specialty Laboratory Operations, OII, FDA
Katy Kale, Deputy Administrator, GSA
Douglas Stearn, Principal Deputy Associate Commissioner, OII, FDA

FDA photo by Matthew MacRoberts

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a photo:

Scientists explain the work they do to guests attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of a 64,000-square-foot expansion and renovation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Forensic Chemistry Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 24, 2024.

The NFCC is a specialty laboratory that serves as the FDA’s national forensic laboratory providing specialized laboratory services in analytical chemistry and molecular/microbiology related to adulteration/contamination, counterfeiting, and product tampering of FDA regulated commodities including drugs, dietary supplements, foods, cosmetics, veterinary feeds, and medical devices.

FDA photo by Matthew MacRoberts

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a photo:

Scientists explain the work they do to guests attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of a 64,000-square-foot expansion and renovation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Forensic Chemistry Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 24, 2024.

The NFCC is a specialty laboratory that serves as the FDA’s national forensic laboratory providing specialized laboratory services in analytical chemistry and molecular/microbiology related to adulteration/contamination, counterfeiting, and product tampering of FDA regulated commodities including drugs, dietary supplements, foods, cosmetics, veterinary feeds, and medical devices.

FDA photo by Matthew MacRoberts

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a photo:

Scientists explain the work they do to guests attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of a 64,000-square-foot expansion and renovation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Forensic Chemistry Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 24, 2024.

The NFCC is a specialty laboratory that serves as the FDA’s national forensic laboratory providing specialized laboratory services in analytical chemistry and molecular/microbiology related to adulteration/contamination, counterfeiting, and product tampering of FDA regulated commodities including drugs, dietary supplements, foods, cosmetics, veterinary feeds, and medical devices.

FDA photo by Matthew MacRoberts

The Orphan Drug Act (ODA) turned 30 this month, demonstrating that good laws really can have an enduring impact. Amidst the celebrations, a reporter asked me a provocative question: can we afford more orphan drugs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year? FDA Matters answered “yes.” However, I added a caveat that should worry everyone eager for orphan drugs to succeed. When genomics and personalized medicine become successful, this will multiply the number of rare diseases and the overall cost of orphan drugs, perhaps beyond what the system can bear.

<p> <b>BIOSIMILAR RED TAPE ELIMINATION ACT (S2305):</b><br /> <b><i>Weakening FDA Regulatory Standards for Biosimilars, Undermining Physician Confidence and Jeopardizing Patient Health</i></b><br /><b>31 October 2024&nbsp;|&nbsp;</b><b><a href="https://youtu.be/X6-dYZ7fjhM" target="_blank">WATCH REPLAY</a></b></p>

<p> <b>23rd Regulatory Affairs Conference 202</b><b>5</b><br /> <b>27</b><b>‒</b><b>28 February 2025</b><br /> Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol<br />Amsterdam, The Netherlands</p>

The government implied wholesalers had more personal protective equipment in stock than was the case during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Healthcare Distribution Association has said.

Community pharmacies will receive an estimated 12 referrals from the Discharge Medicines Service per year.

By Mike Cloonan, CEO of Sionna Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC An insightful piece on this blog following the JPM healthcare conference noted the “refreshing burst of enthusiasm” in the biotech sector. It’s true

The post Lessons From A Private Funding Round: Science, Relationships, And Experience appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch, CEO of Vigil Neuroscience, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC In an industry where boom and bust cycles occur regularly and 90 percent of drug candidates fail to reach the market, an outstanding

The post Reflections On My Experience As A Board Member appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC HotSpot’s trip to Barcelona for the recent European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Meeting was no ‘European Vacation,’ but it was certainly

The post ESMO Reflections: Glimmers of Hope with the Next Wave of I-O Therapies? appeared first on LifeSciVC.

[Fair Warning: I have generally tried to keep this blog separate from my corporate existence, but am making an exception for two quick posts about the upcoming DIA 2013 Annual Meeting.]

Improving Enrollment in Pediatric Clinical Trials

Logistically, ethically, and emotionally, involving children in medical research is greatly different from the same research in adults. Some of the toughest clinical trials I've worked on, across a number of therapeutic areas, have been pediatric ones. They challenge you to come up with different approaches to introducing and explaining clinical research – approaches that have to work for doctors, kids, and parents simultaneously.

On Thursday June 27, Don Sickler, one of my team members, will be chairing a session titled “Parents as Partners: Engaging Caregivers for Pediatric Trials”. It should be a good session.

Joining Don are 2 people I've had the pleasure of working with in the past. Both of them combine strong knowledge of clinical research with a massive amount of positive energy and enthusiasm (no doubt a big part of what makes them successful).

However, they also differ in one key aspect: what they work on. One of them – Tristen Moors from Hyperion Therapeutics - works on an ultra-rare condition, Urea Cycle Disorder, a disease affecting only a few hundred children every year. On the other hand, Dr. Ann Edmunds is an ENT working in a thriving private practice. I met her because she was consistently the top enroller in a number of trials relating to tympanostomy tube insertion. Surgery to place “t-tubes” is one of the most common and routine outpatients surgeries there is, with an estimated half million kids getting tubes each year.

Each presents a special challenge: for rare conditions, how do you even find enough patients? For routine procedures, how do you convince parents to complicate their (and their children’s) lives by signing up for a multi-visit, multi-procedure trial?

Ann and Tristen have spent a lot of time tackling these issues, and should have some great advice to give.

For more information on the session, here’s Don’s posting on our news blog.

More people are getting cancer in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and surviving, thanks to rapid advancement in care. Many will have decades of life ahead of them, which means they face greater and more complex challenges in survivorship. Lourdes Monje is navigating these waters at age 29.

Sudan's civil war has displaced 10 million citizens. Here are profiles of two young people from the most vulnerable groups: an unaccompanied minor caring for twin brothers, a woman who was raped.

Dalam dunia perjudian online yang terus berkembang, pencarian para pemain untuk menemukan peluang terbaik dalam meraih kemenangan mengarah pada fenomena populer: kumpulan game slot gacor dengan persentase RTP tertinggi hari…

The post Kumpulan Game Slot Gacor Dengan Persentase RTP Tertinggi Hari Ini appeared first on Biosimilarnews.

Keuntungan besar dan kegembiraan yang ditawarkan oleh mesin slot online membuatnya semakin populer. Namun, dalam lautan situs slot yang ada, bagaimana Anda bisa menemukan situs slot terbaik yang dapat memberikan…

The post Link Daftar Situs Slot Gacor Gampang Menang Maxwin Terpercaya Hari Ini appeared first on Biosimilarnews.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revolutionized healthcare by providing radiation-free, non-invasive 3-D medical images. However, MRI scanners often consume 25 kilowatts or more to power magnets producing magnetic fields up to 1.5 tesla. These requirements typically limits scanners’ use to specialized centers and departments in hospitals.

A University of Hong Kong team has now unveiled a low-power, highly simplified, full-body MRI device. With the help of artificial intelligence, the new scanner only requires a compact 0.05 T magnet and can run off a standard wall power outlet, requiring only 1,800 watts during operation. The researchers say their new AI-enabled machine can produce clear, detailed images on par with those from high-power MRI scanners currently used in clinics, and may one day help greatly improve access to MRI worldwide.

To generate images, MRI applies a magnetic field to align the poles of the body’s protons in the same direction. An MRI scanner then probes the body with radio waves, knocking the protons askew. When the radio waves turn off, the protons return to their original alignment, transmitting radio signals as they do so. MRI scanners receive these signals, converting them into images.

More than 150 million MRI scans are conducted worldwide annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, despite five decades of development, clinical MRI procedures remain out of reach for more than two-thirds of the world’s population, especially in low- and middle-income countries. For instance, whereas the United States has 40 scanners per million inhabitants, in 2016 there were only 84 MRI units serving West Africa’s population of more than 370 million.

This disparity largely stems from the high costs and specialized settings required for standard MRI scanners. They use powerful superconducting magnets that require a lot of space, power, and specialized infrastructure. They also need rooms shielded from radio interference, further adding to hardware costs, restricting their mobility, and hampering their availability in other medical settings.

Scientists around the globe have already been exploring low-cost MRI scanners that operate at ultra-low-field (ULF) strengths of less than 0.1 T. These devices may consume much less power and prove potentially portable enough for bedside use. Indeed, as the Hong Kong team notes, MRI development initially focused on low fields of about 0.05 T, until the introduction of the first whole-body 1.5 T superconducting scanner by General Electric in 1983.

The new MRI scanner (top left) is smaller than conventional scanners, and does away with bulky RF shielding and superconducting magnetics. The new scanner’s imaging resolution is on par with conventional scanners (bottom).Ed X. Wu/The University of Hong Kong

Current ULF MRI scanners often rely on AI to help reconstruct images from what signals they gather using relatively weak magnetic fields. However, until now, these devices were limited to solely imaging the brain, extremities, or single organs, Udunna Anazodo, an assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University in Montreal who did not take part in the work, notes in a review of the new study.

The Hong Kong team have now developed a whole-body ULF MRI scanner in which patients are placed between two permanent neodymium ferrite boron magnet plates—one above the body and the other below. Although these permanent magnets are far weaker than superconductive magnets, they are low-cost, readily available, and don’t require liquid helium or to be cooled to superconducting temperatures. In addition, the amount of energy ULF MRI scanners deposit into the body is roughly one-thousandth that from conventional scanners, making heat generation during imaging much less of a concern, Anazodo notes in her review. ULF MRI is also much quieter than regular MRI, which may help with pediatric scanning, she adds.

The new machine consists of two units, each roughly the size of a hospital gurney. One unit houses the MRI device, while the other supports the patient’s body as it slides into the scanner.

To account for radio interference from both the outside environment and the ULF MRI’s own electronics, the scientists deployed 10 small sensor coils around the scanner and inside the electronics cabinet to help the machine detect potentially disruptive radio signals. They also employed deep learning AI methods to help reconstruct images even in the presence of strong noise. They say this eliminates the need for shielding against radio waves, making the new device far more portable than conventional MRI.

In tests on 30 healthy volunteers, the device captured detailed images of the brain, spine, abdomen, heart, lung, and extremities. Scanning each of these targets took eight minutes or less for image resolutions of roughly 2 by 2 by 8 cubic millimeters. In Anazodo’s review, she notes the new machine produced image qualities comparable to those of conventional MRI scanners.

“It’s the beginning of a multidisciplinary endeavor to advance an entirely new class of simple, patient-centric and computing-powered point-of-care diagnostic imaging device,” says Ed Wu, a professor and chair of biomedical engineering at the University of Hong Kong.

The researchers used standard off-the-shelf electronics. All in all, they estimate hardware costs at about US $22,000. (According to imaging equipment company Block Imaging in Holt, Michigan, entry-level MRI scanners start at $225,000, and advanced premium machines can cost $500,000 or more.)

The prototype scanner’s magnet assembly is relatively heavy, weighing about 1,300 kilograms. (This is still lightweight compared to a typical clinical MRI scanner, which can weigh up to 17 tons, according to New York University’s Langone Health center.) The scientists note that optimizing the hardware could reduce the magnet assembly’s weight to about 600 kilograms, which would make the entire scanner mobile.

The researchers note their new device is not meant to replace conventional high-magnetic-field MRI. For instance, a 2023 study notes that next-generation MRI scanners using powerful 7 T magnets could yield a resolution of just 0.35 millimeters. Instead, ULF MRI can complement existing MRI by going to places that can’t host standard MRI devices, such as intensive care units and community clinics.

In an email, Anazodo adds this new Hong Kong work is just one of a number of exciting ULF MRI scanners under development. For instance, she notes that Gordon Sarty at the University of Saskatchewan and his colleagues are developing that device that is potentially even lighter, cheaper and more portable than the Hong Kong machine, which they are researching for use in whole-body imaging on the International Space Station.

Wu and his colleagues detailed their findings online 10 May in the journal Science.

This article appears in the July 2024 print issue as “Compact MRI Ditches Superconducting Magnets.”

UPDATE 31 OCTOBER 2024: No. 1 no longer. The would-have-been groundbreaking study published in Nature Communications by Amit Goyal et al. claiming the world’s highest-performing high-temperature superconducting wires yet has been retracted by the authors.

The journal’s editorial statement that now accompanies the paper says that after publication, an error in the calculation of the reported performance was identified. All of the study’s authors agreed with the retraction.

The researchers were first alerted to the issue by Evgeny Talantsev at the Mikheev Institute of Metal Physics in Ekaterinburg, Russia, and Jeffery Tallon at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. In a 2015 study, the two researchers had suggested upper limits for thin-film superconductors, and Tallon notes follow-up papers showed these limits held for more than 100 known superconductors. “The Goyal paper claimed current densities 2.5 times higher, so it was immediately obvious to us that there was a problem here,” he says.

Upon request, Goyal and his colleagues “very kindly agreed to release their raw data and did so quickly,” Tallon says. He and Talantsev discovered a mistake in the conversion of magnetization units.

“Most people who had been in the game for a long time would be fully conversant with the units conversion because the instruments all deliver magnetic data in [centimeter-gram-second] gaussian units, so they always have to be converted to [the International System of Units],” Tallon says. “It has always been a little tricky, but students are asked to take great care and check their numbers against other reports to see if they agree.”

In a statement, Goyal notes he and his colleagues “intend to continue to push the field forward” by continuing to explore ways to enhance wire performance using nanostructural modifications. —Charles Q. Choi

Original article from 17 August, 2024 follows:

Superconductors have for decades spurred dreams of extraordinary technological breakthroughs, but many practical applications for them have remained out of reach. Now a new study reveals what may be the world’s highest-performing high-temperature superconducting wires yet, ones that carry 50 percent as much current as the previous record-holder. Scientists add this advance was achieved without increased costs or complexity to how superconducting wires are currently made.

Superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance. Classic superconductors work only at super-cold temperatures below 30 degrees Kelvin. In contrast, high-temperature superconductors can operate at temperatures above 77 K, which means they can be cooled to superconductivity using comparatively inexpensive and less burdensome cryogenics built around liquid nitrogen coolant.

Regular electrical conductors all resist electron flow to some degree, resulting in wasted energy. The fact that superconductors conduct electricity without dissipating energy has long lead to dreams of significantly more efficient power grids. In addition, the way in which rivers of electric currents course through them means superconductors can serve as powerful electromagnets, for applications such as maglev trains, better MRI scanners for medicine, doubling the amount of power generated from wind turbines, and nuclear fusion power plants.

“Today, companies around the world are fabricating kilometer-long, high-temperature superconductor wires,” says Amit Goyal, SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University of Buffalo in New York.

However, many large-scale applications for superconductors may stay fantasies until researchers can find a way to fabricate high-temperature superconducting wires in a more cost-effective manner.

In the new research, scientists have created wires that have set new records for the amount of current they can carry at temperatures ranging from 5 K to 77 K. Moreover, fabrication of the new wires requires processes no more complex or costly than those currently used to make high-temperature superconducting wires.

“The performance we have reported in 0.2-micron-thick wires is similar to wires almost 10 times thicker,” Goyal says.

At 4.2 K, the new wires carried 190 million amps per square centimeter without any externally applied magnetic field. This is some 50 percent better than results reported in 2022 and a full 100 percent better than ones detailed in 2021, Goyal and his colleagues note. At 20 K and under an externally applied magnetic field of 20 tesla—the kind of conditions envisioned for fusion applications—the new wires may carry about 9.3 million amps per square centimeter, roughly 5 times greater than present-day commercial high-temperature superconductor wires, they add.

Another factor key to the success of commercial high-temperature superconductor wires is pinning force—the ability to keep magnetic vortices pinned in place within the superconductors that could otherwise interfere with electron flow. (So in that sense higher pinning force values are better here—more conducive to the range of applications expected for such high-capacity, high-temperature superconductors.) The new wires showed record-setting pinning forces of more than 6.4 trillion newtons at 4.3 K under a 7 tesla magnetic field. This is more than twice as much as results previously reported in 2022.

The new wires are based on rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO). The wires use nanometer-sized columns of insulating, non-superconducting barium zirconate at nanometer-scale spacings within the superconductor that can help pin down magnetic vortices, allowing for higher supercurrents.

The researchers made these gains after a few years spent optimizing deposition processes, Goyal says. “We feel that high-temperature superconductor wire performance can still be significantly improved,” he adds. “We have several paths to get to better performance and will continue to explore these routes.”

Based on these results, high-temperature superconductor wire manufacturers “will hopefully further optimize their deposition conditions to improve the performance of their wires,” Goyal says. “Some companies may be able to do this in a short time.”

The hope is that superconductor companies will be able to significantly improve performance without too many changes to present-day manufacturing processes. “If high-temperature superconductor wire manufacturers can even just double the performance of commercial high-temperature superconductor wires while keeping capital equipment costs the same, it could make a transformative impact to the large-scale applications of superconductors,” Goyal says.

The scientists detailed their findings on 7 August in the journal Nature Communications.

This story was updated on 19 August 2024 to correct Amit Goyal’s title and affiliation.

Surgical stitches that generate electricity can help wounds heal faster in rats, a new study from China finds.

In the body, electricity helps the heart beat, causes muscles to contract, and enables the body to communicate with the brain. Now scientists are increasingly using electricity to promote healing with so-called electroceuticals. These electrotherapies often seek to mimic the electrical signals the body naturally uses to help new cells migrate to wounds to support the healing process.

In the new study, researchers focused on sutures, which are used to close wounds and surgical incisions. Despite the way in which medical devices have evolved rapidly over the years, sutures are generally limited in capability, says Zhouquan Sun, a doctoral candidate at Donghua University in Shanghai. “This observation led us to explore integrating advanced therapeutics into sutures,” Sun says.

Prior work sought to enhance sutures by adding drugs or growth factors to the stitches. However, most of these drugs either had insignificant effects on healing, or triggered side-effects such as allergic reactions or nausea. Growth factors in sutures often degraded before they could have any effect, or failed to activate entirely.

The research team that created the new sutures previously developed fibers for electronics for nearly 10 years for applications such as sensors. “This is our first attempt to apply fiber electronics in the biomedical field,” says Chengyi Hou, a professor of materials science and engineering at Donghua University.

Making Electrical Sutures Work

The new sutures are roughly 500 microns wide, or about five times the width of the average human hair. Like typical sutures, the new stitches are biodegradable, avoiding the need for doctors to remove the stitches and potentially cause more damage to a wound.

Each suture is made of a magnesium filament core wrapped in poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) nanofibers, a commercially available, inexpensive, biodegradable polymer used in sutures. The suture also includes an outer sheath made of polycaprolactone (PCL), a biodegradable polyester and another common suture material.

Previously, electrotherapy devices were often bulky and expensive, and required wires connected to an external battery. The new stitches are instead powered by the triboelectric effect, the most common cause of static electricity. When two different materials repeatedly touch and then separate—in the case of the new suture, its core and sheath—the surface of one material can steal electrons from the surface of the other. This is why rubbing feet on a carpet or a running a comb through hair can build up electric charge.

A common problem sutures face is how daily movements may cause strain that reduce their efficacy. The new stitches take advantage of these motions to help generate electricity that helps wounds heal.

The main obstacle the researchers had to surmount was developing a suture that was both thin and strong enough to serve in medicine. Over the course of nearly two years, they tinkered with the molecular weights of the polymers they used and refined their fiber spinning technology to reduce their suture’s diameter while maintaining strength, Sun says.

In lab experiments on rats, the sutures generated about 2.3 volts during normal exercise. The scientists found the new sutures could speed up wound healing by 50 percent over the course of 10 days compared to conventional sutures. They also significantly lowered bacteria levels even without the use of daily wound disinfectants, suggesting they could reduce the risk of post-operation infections.

“Future research may delve deeper into the molecular mechanisms of how electrical stimulation facilitated would healing,” says Hui Wang, a chief physician at Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital.

Further tests are needed in clinical settings to assess how effective these sutures are in humans. If such experiments prove successful, “this bioabsorbable electrically stimulating suture could change how we treat injuries in the future,” Hou says.

The scientists detailed their findings online 8 October in the journal Nature Communications.

This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.

Any imaging technique that allows scientists to observe the inner workings of a living organism, in real-time, provides a wealth of information compared to experiments in a test tube. While there are many such imaging approaches in existence, they require test subjects—in this case rodents—to be tethered to the monitoring device. This limits the ability of animals under study to roam freely during experiments.

Researchers have recently designed a new microscope with a unique feature: It’s capable of transmitting real-time imaging from inside live mice via Bluetooth to a nearby phone or laptop. Once the device has been further miniaturized, the wireless connection will allow mice and other test subject animals to roam freely, making it easier to observe them in a more natural state.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Bluetooth wireless microscope,” says Arvind Pathak, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Through a series of experiments, Pathak and his colleagues demonstrate how the novel wireless microscope, called BLEscope, offers continuous monitoring of blood vessels and tumors in the brains of mice. The results are described in a study published 24 September in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

Microscopes have helped shed light on many biological mysteries, but the devices typically require that cells be removed from an organism and studied in a test tube. Any opportunity to study the biological process as it naturally occurs in the in the body (“in vivo”) tends to offer more useful and thorough information.

Several different miniature microscopes designed for in vivo experiments in animals exist. However, Pathak notes that these often require high power consumption or a wire to be tethered to the device to transmit the data—or both—which may restrict an animal’s natural movements and behavior.

“To overcome these hurdles, [Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. candidate] Subhrajit Das and our team designed an imaging system that operates with ultra-low power consumption—below 50 milliwatts—while enabling wireless data transmission and continuous, functional imaging at spatial resolutions of 5 to 10 micrometers in [rodents],” says Pathak.

The researchers created BLEscope using an off-the-shelf, low-power image sensor and microcontroller, which are integrated on a printed circuit board. Importantly, it has two LED lights of different colors—green and blue—that help create contrast during imaging.

“The BLE protocol enabled wireless control of the BLEscope, which then captures and transmits images wirelessly to a laptop or phone,” Pathak explains. “Its low power consumption and portability make it ideal for remote, real-time imaging.”

Pathak and his colleagues tested BLEscope in live mice through two experiments. In the first scenario, they added a fluorescent marker into the blood of mice and used BLEscope to characterize blood flow within the animals’ brains in real-time. In the second experiment, the researchers altered the oxygen and carbon dioxide ratios of the air being breathed in by mice with brain tumors, and were able to observe blood vessel changes in the fluorescently marked tumors.

“The BLEscope’s key strength is its ability to wirelessly conduct high-resolution, multi-contrast imaging for up to 1.5 hours, without the need for a tethered power supply,” Pathak says.

However, Pathak points out that the current prototype is limited by its size and weight. BLEscope will need to be further miniaturized, so that it doesn’t interfere with animals’ abilities to roam freely during experiments.

“We’re planning to miniaturize the necessary electronic components onto a flexible light-weight printed circuit board, which would reduce weight and footprint of the BLEscope to make it suitable for use on freely moving animals,” says Pathak.

This story was updated on 14 October 2024, to correct a statement about the size of the BLEscope.

Acadia Pharmaceuticals did not disclose the buyer of the priority review voucher. The biotech received the voucher last year alongside the regulatory decision that made its drug Daybue the first FDA-approved treatment for the rare disease Rett syndrome.

The post Acadia Pharma Sells Voucher for Speedier FDA Drug Review for $150M appeared first on MedCity News.

Mental health experts are hopeful about the de-stigmatization of behavioral health, the promise of AI and other areas, they shared at a recent conference.

The post 4 Areas Within Mental Health Care that Give Executives Hope appeared first on MedCity News.

Among the topics INVEST will highlight are AI in life sciences, the investor perspective in healthcare and strategic priorities for hospitals.

The post A Sneak Peek of INVEST 2025 Agenda appeared first on MedCity News.

Top challenges impacting specialty pharmacy outcomes, and how health systems may achieve efficiencies and enhance performance for optimal outcomes.

The post An Integrated Approach to Optimizing Specialty Pharmacy and Accelerating Performance appeared first on MedCity News.

By adopting a contingent workforce model and investing in the right data tools to power better informed decision-making and talent strategy, healthcare organizations can begin to address staffing challenges and turn their talent goals into reality. 

The post Closing Staffing Gaps in Healthcare by Utilizing Diverse Pipelines of Contingent Talent appeared first on MedCity News.

AbbVie schizophrenia drug candidate emraclidine failed to beat a placebo in two Phase 2 clinical trials. The drug, once projected to compete with Bristol Myers Squibb’s Cobenfy, is from AbbVie’s $8.7 billion acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics.

The post AbbVie Drug Expected to Rival Bristol Myers’s New Schizophrenia Med Flunks Phase 2 Test appeared first on MedCity News.

Fort Health’s $5.5 million in funding was led by Twelve Below and Vanterra and included participation from Redesign Health, Blue Venture Fund and True Wealth Ventures.

The post Fort Health Secures $5.5M to Expand Access to Integrated Pediatric Mental Health Care appeared first on MedCity News.

The Pew Charitable Trusts joined dozens of research, health care, and nonprofit stakeholders in urging President-elect Joe Biden to prioritize and strengthen the national response to antibiotic resistance.

As winter arrives and daylight hours decrease, it gets easier to hit the snooze button and stay in bed. It turns out that there’s a scientific reason behind this phenomenon that helps to explain why people struggle to adjust their internal clocks—also known as circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle—when the weather turns colder.

The Pew Charitable Trusts sent comments Jan. 4 to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) urging them to support the easy exchange of individuals’ health records through a pair of regulations.

Over the past year, COVID-19 has taken a grave toll in lives as well as on medical and health care systems worldwide. The pandemic has laid bare the importance of public health readiness and the myriad consequences when such a crisis strikes an unprepared population.

The Pew Charitable Trusts today commended Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D), state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R), and Lee Chatfield (R)—whose term as state House Speaker ended last month—for passing and signing a bipartisan package of bills aimed at protecting public safety while reducing the number of people in county jails.

The United States is grappling with two severe health crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and an opioid epidemic that appears to be worsening as more people deal with stress and isolation as they face increased barriers to medical care. Preliminary numbers for 2020 show that overdose deaths were outpacing the record-setting number of more than 71,000 fatalities in 2019.

Social media has become a significant source of health-related content. But while it connects people to news, updates, […]

The post Do People Believe Misinformation on Vaccines? appeared first on World of DTC Marketing.

Act now for the best deal on SAS Global Forum 2016 registration. You already know that SAS Global Forum will pay for itself in learning opportunities.

This paper highlights the many enhancements to SAS/ETS software and demonstrates how these features can help your organization increase revenue and enhance productivity.

You have just a few more days to submit your paper proposal for the 2017 SAS® Global Forum in Orlando on April 2–5. The call for papers ends and registration begins October 3.

Life can sometimes feel like a never-ending cycle of stress and decisions. That's usually my weekdays in a nutshell: chasing deadlines, making tough calls, and hopping between meetings. When your brain feels like it's on overdrive, it's time to hit pause. Engaging in some therapeutic activities can give your mind the breather it desperately needs. The good news? They don't have to be complicated or time-consuming. Here are some that can work wonders for your mental clarity and overall well-being. Step outside for a walk Walking is one of the simplest ways to clear your mind. It's amazing what a little fresh air at your nearby PCN can do. Just stepping outside and getting those legs moving can shift your perspective in a matter of minutes — and burn a few calories too! Disconnect from your phone and enjoy the sights and sounds of the great outdoors. I find that a 30-min walk and a change of environment works wonders for me, helping me rationally dissect my worries, such as my crushing feelings of inadequacy at work.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson didn't speak to each other for "weeks at a time" when they worked on The X Files. The 64-year-old actor and Gillian, 56, enjoyed huge success with the iconic sci-fi series — but the duo actually had a turbulent relationship for many years. David said on the Fail Better podcast: "There was a long time, working on the show, where we were just not even dealing with one another off-camera. And there was a lot of tension. Which didn't matter, apparently, for the work cause we're both f****** crazy, I guess. We could just go out there and do what we needed to do." Gillian was amazed that they achieved so much success while their off-screen relationship was so tense.