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The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has recommended updating the product information for epoetin-containing medicines with a new warning for their use in cancer patients stating that blood transfusion should be the preferred method of correcting anaemia in patients suffering cancer. Epoetin-containing medicines are indicated in patients with chronic renal failure and for the treatment of anaemia in symptomatic patients with non-myeloid tumours receiving chemotherapy.

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Botswana’s high HIV prevalence has reduced the country’s pool of blood donors while also increasing the need for blood services in the country, Nomsa Mbere, president of the Botswana Red Cross Society, said Saturday on World Blood Donor Day, Botswana’s Mmegi reports.

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A study at the University of South Florida has shown that transplants of mononuclear human umbilical cord blood (MNChUCB) cells may help patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. A disease in which the motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain degenerate, ALS leaves its victims with progressive muscle weakness, paralysis and, finally, respiratory failure three to five years after diagnosis.

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BIN those tarot cards and cancel the visit to the palm reader. It might one day be possible to predict how long you’ll live from a sample of your white blood cells. It is well known that the children of long-lived parents tend to be long-lived too, but no one knows why. As white blood cells fend off infection, in effect they are delaying death. So Sonya Vasto and her colleagues at the University of Palermo in Italy wondered whether these cells might hold any clues to longevity.

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AspenBio Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: APPY) an emerging bio-pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of novel drugs and diagnostics for humans and animals, has officially initiated a clinical trial to support the FDA 510(k) application for the AppyScore? Human Appendicitis blood-based diagnostic test. Enrollment of the first patients in the independent, blind, multicenter study began this week, which will include patients from a large children’s hospital.

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The largest ever study into the administration of blood thinning drugs, principally Warfarin, has concluded that dosages calculated by computer are at least as safe and reliable as those provided by expert medical professionals.. Increasing evidence of the value of these anticoagulant drugs in a wide range of clinical disorders such as abnormal heart rhythm, or atrial fibrillation, has led to a rapid rise in their use around the world.

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GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration has extended the priority review period for PROMACTA(R) (eltrombopag) for the short-term treatment of previously treated patients with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, as they require more time to review the application. The Prescription Drug User Fee action date has been extended to September 19, 2008.

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Instrumentation Laboratory (IL) announced that it has received FDA clearance 510(k) for the ACL TOP software V3.0.0. This clearance allows IL to market the ACL TOP 500 CTS Hemostasis Testing System in the United States as a member of the ACL TOP Family of analyzers.

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Uncertainties about proper use and possible long-term effects of hydroxyurea in the treatment of sickle cell anemia may be wrongly influencing doctors to avoid prescribing it to those in serious need, according to results of a literature review by specialists at Johns Hopkins.”We know that many people with sickle cell disease aren’t being offered this drug, which is the only one we have to treat this disease,” says Sophie Lanzkron, M.D.

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China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have made impressive strides in tackling the risk of contamination from unsafe blood by reaching close to 100% voluntary blood donation, said WHO today . Their efforts to increase their safe blood base will be promoted as models for other countries to follow on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day.Compared to 1998, when systems of paid donations or donations from family members made up 80% of its blood supplies, China has achieved 98.

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