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MAP Pharmaceuticals Phase 3 Trial Of Levadex™ Migraine Product Candidate Meets All Four Primary Endpoints
MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAPP) announced that the efficacy portion of its first Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating its novel LEVADEX™ orally inhaled migraine therapy met all four primary endpoints. Additional endpoints showed that LEVADEX provided rapid and sustained pain relief for up to 48 hours after dosing.
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Senate Judiciary Committee Vote On Sotomayor Reset For July 28
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday postponed its vote on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor until July 28 at the request of Republican members who said they need one more week to review written answers she recently submitted to the panel, CongressDaily reports. Both Republicans and Democrats expect Sotomayor to be approved by the committee and confirmed by the Senate, CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily, 7/21).The delay came as Senate Republicans continued to weigh whether they would vote to confirm Sotomayor, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced plans to vote for Sotomayor and issued a statement calling the judge "committed to applying the law impartially without bias or favoritism." Four other moderate Republicans have said they will support Sotomayor, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) indicated that more might follow suit. "There are a number of Republicans who have announced they plan to vote for her," Leahy said, adding, "There are a number of others who"ve not made that announcement yet, but plan to vote for her" (Peterson, Wall Street Journal, 7/21). Leahy said he is confident that Sotomayor will be confirmed in time for the Supreme Court"s first meeting on Sept. 9.Some strong conservatives, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), have said they will oppose Sotomayor (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Denver Post, 7/22). Among the Senate Republicans who have not announced their intentions are Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), who serves on the Judiciary Committee, and Judd Gregg (N.H.) (Wall Street Journal, 7/21).NARAL Endorses Sotomayor NARAL ProChoice America recently said that it will endorse Sotomayor, the AP/Seattle Times reports. The group said that Sotomayor"s testimony shows that she is a stronger supporter of privacy rights than the last two Supreme Court nominees -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Sotomayor said several times during her confirmation hearings that privacy rights include a woman"s right to have an abortion, NARAL said. According to the AP/Times, NARAL did not endorse Sotomayor until now because of uncertainty over her views on abortion rights (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Seattle Times, 7/21).
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A Novel Approach For Treating Cognitive Impairments Identified By Animal Model For Schizophrenia
Researchers have been seeking a safe and effective way to treat cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia by enhancing N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors. Functional deficits in NMDA receptors may contribute to the underlying neurobiology of this disorder. The first generation of studies trying to stimulate NMDA receptors administered large amounts of substances, like glycine or D-serine, which indirectly enhance NMDA receptor function. While there were some positive reports of efficacy, findings across studies were more inconsistent than was hoped.
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A Selection Of Recent Studies And Surveys

National Cancer Institute: Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Mortality Are Not Driven by Estrogen Receptor Status Alone -- "Black women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have a higher probability of dying from the disease than white women, regardless of their estrogen receptor status," a study published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute finds, according to a NCI description of the document. By comparing the breast cancer rates for black and white women using data from the NCI"s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result (SEER) program, researchers found that the "differences in breast cancer mortality may reflect racial differences in access and response to innovative breast cancer treatments, as well as other biological and non-biological factors" and "differences in outcomes in the first few years post-diagnosis make up nearly all of the disparity" (7/7). New England Journal of Medicine: The Effect of Medicare Part D on Drug and Medical Spending -- "[Medicare] Part D increased the use of prescription drugs among enrollees who previously had either no drug coverage or modest benefits and that the cost of the increased use was approximately offset by decreases in other medical spending," conclude the authors of a recent study. The findings are based on a comparison between the money spent on "prescription drugs and other medical care 2 years before the implementation of Part D in January 2006 with such expenditures 2 years after the program"s implementation in four groups of elderly beneficiaries: Medicare Advantage enrollees with stable, uncapped, employer-based drug coverage throughout the study period (no-cap group), those who had no previous drug coverage, and those who had previous limited benefits (with either a $150 or a $350 quarterly cap) before they were covered by Part D in 2006" (7/2). Health Affairs: How Well Did Health Departments Communicate About Risk At The Start Of The Swine Flu Epidemic In 2009? -- This paper examines how quickly state and local health departments were able to react to the declaration that H1N1 influenza (swine flu) was a public emergency by the secretary of HHS on April 26, 2009, as measured through the ability of the departments to "provide online information to their constituents within twenty-four hours of the declaration." The analysis revealed, "[t]he overwhelming majority of state health departments, and more than half of health departments participating in the Cities Readiness Initiative" - a federally funded program aimed at increasing the ability of cities to deliver medicines and medical supplies in a public emergency - "were successful" at meeting the 24-hour goal, compared to "only a quarter of smaller, local health departments" (7/7). 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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