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Fate Of Tiller's Clinic Expected To Be Decided This Week
The family of murdered Kansas abortion provider George Tiller is expected to decide this week whether his Wichita clinic will reopen, NPR"s "Morning Edition" reports. Tiller"s clinic is one of the few in the U.S. that performs abortions later in pregnancy, and many abortion-rights advocates are concerned whether women in need of abortions in the second and third trimester would be able to obtain care if it were not reopened. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska abortion provider who worked with Tiller at his clinic for four years, said that although it is a difficult time for abortion providers, he hopes that the family will reopen the clinic. "This is a job that we took, and we were well-aware of the risks when we started, as was Dr. Tiller," he said. Providing abortion services in the second and third trimester is "a service that"s so needed that it"s worth the risks," he added (Lohr, "Morning Edition," NPR, 6/9). Carhart also said that although no decision on Tiller"s clinic has been made, he "want[s] to assure the press and the women of America ... that we will somehow, somewhere continue to provide abortions later in gestation" (Duin, Washington Times, 6/9).According to Carhart, there are only about 10 providers in the U.S. who perform abortions in the second and third trimesters, including a few hospitals that do not advertise the services. "Morning Edition" reports that most women"s health care providers either are not trained or do not want to receive training to perform the procedure later in pregnancy. Providers who do tend to be older and face extreme pressure from antiabortion-rights advocates. Data from the Guttmacher Institute show that about 1% of all abortions performed in the U.S. occur after 21 weeks" gestation. Elizabeth Nash of Guttmacher said that 37 states have laws that limit access to abortion after a certain point in pregnancy, "usually around 24 weeks, which is at the end of the second trimester." She added that most of those states only allow abortions to save the life of the woman or if her physical health is in jeopardy. Pratima Gupta, an ob-gyn in California, said that she is concerned about what will happen to Tiller"s patients. Gupta said Tiller "had patients that were scheduled for Monday morning. What happened to those patients for the rest of the week, the rest of the month? Those patients are the ones who need us" ("Morning Edition," NPR, 6/9).
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Lutonix, Inc. Announces First Patient Enrollments In Three Separate Clinical Trials
Lutonix, Inc., a privately held medical device start-up, announced that patient enrollment is underway for its three simultaneous first-in-human clinical trials. The three studies are designed to test whether the proprietary Lutonix Drug Coated Balloon (DCB) Catheter is safe and effective in the treatment of vascular narrowing.
News of the day
Special Issue Of Criminology And Criminal Justice Explores Gun Crime Internationally
Guns smuggled from the US arm criminals in Canada and Mexico, contributing to a higher murder rate in Canada and more intense drug crime conflict near the Mexican border, according to a study published in a special issue of Criminology and Criminal Justice, published by SAGE.
Oncology

Avecia Launches Toolkit For Production Of Antibody Fragments

Avecia Biologics has announced it has created a "toolkit" of technologies to meet the production challenges for the next generation of antibody-based therapeutics. The toolkit consists of four elements, bringing together Avecia"s high yield microbial expression system - pAVEway™ - with innovative downstream technologies for purification, refold and PEGylation. Using Avecia"s expertise in these areas, the company offers its clients rapid process development, combined with tested and well understood platforms applicable to a wide range of antibody fragment types and alternative scaffolds. The first element of the "toolkit" is Avecia"s award-winning pAVEway™ technology, comprising innovative vectors, selected host strains and highly optimised production systems, giving rapid and efficient antibody fragment expression and scale up. Purification technology forms the second part of the package, with Avecia"s recent development of two complementary purification technologies for use with antibody fragments produced in microbial systems. The first - a universal platform - offers optimised screening for rapid selection and has been demonstrated on a range of antibody fragments. The second is an affinity platform, and has high selectivity for antibody fragments, even at low concentration. The third element of the "toolkit" is a Refold platform, where Avecia has developed a rapid optimisation procedure for protein refolding. The company"s experience includes the successful use of refolding in the clinical manufacture of over 25 different products. The final part of the offering is PEGylation technology. PEGylation is the method of choice for improving the pharmacokinetic properties and immunogenicity profiles of proteins, including antibody fragments. Avecia has a track record of success with maleimide PEGylyation and is now also collaborating with PolyTherics, a company specialising in precision engineering of protein half-life, to apply its proprietary technologies to antibody fragments. Dr Mark Carver, Chief Scientific Officer at Avecia Biologics, said: "Packaging our capabilities for antibody fragment production together in this way will enable our customers to choose the elements most applicable to the development of their molecule. We are committed to being at the forefront of technologies which will help deliver robust and reliable production processes rapidly to our clients, thereby reducing their time to clinic". Avecia


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