Insomnia

...ba href=/insomnia/a/b, decreases sleep latency and improves sleep maintenance; and Macugen(R) which treats neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

"We have seen some exceptional advances in the treatment of critical disease conditions, with many promising therapies now in Phase III clinical trials, encompassing both vaccines to prevent disease and more effective life-saving therapies," said Aitken.

"For example, Gardasil(R) and Cervarix(R) promise to be effective vaccines against HPV, the cause of nearly three-quarters of the cases of cervical cancer, which last year contributed to the death of more than a quarter of a million people worldwide.

These and other therapies for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes will improve life expectancy and enhance patient quality of life." In 2005, more than 2,300 products were in clinical development, up 9 percent from 2004 levels, and up 31 percent over the past three years.

A promising range of drugs are now in Phase III clinical trials or pre-approval stage, including 96 oncology products, 51 products for treating cardiovascular disease, 37 for viral infections and HIV, and 28 for arthritis/pain.

Of the total pipeline, 27 percent of these products are biologic in nature-an all-time high.

Biologics also experienced strong growth overall, adding $7.6 billion in sales to the global pharmaceutical market in 2005.

Led by Amgen, Roche/Genentech and Johnson and Johnson, this sector grew 17.1 percent in 2005, generating sale...

...ba href=/insomnia/a/b, decreases sleep latency and improves sleep maintenance; and Macugen® which treats neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

“We have seen some exceptional advances in the treatment of critical disease conditions, with many promising therapies now in Phase III clinical trials, encompassing both vaccines to prevent disease and more effective life-saving therapies,” said Aitken.

“For example, Gardasil® and Cervarix® promise to be effective vaccines against HPV, the cause of nearly three-quarters of the cases of cervical cancer, which last year contributed to the death of more than a quarter of a million people worldwide.

These and other therapies for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes will improve life expectancy and enhance patient quality of life.” In 2005, more than 2,300 products were in clinical development, up 9 percent from 2004 levels, and up 31 percent over the past three years.

A promising range of drugs are now in Phase III clinical trials or pre-approval stage, including 96 oncology products, 51 products for treating cardiovascular disease, 37 for viral infections and HIV, and 28 for arthritis/pain.

Of the total pipeline, 27 percent of these products are biologic in nature—an all-time high.

Biologics also experienced strong growth overall, adding $7.6 billion in sales to the global pharmaceutical market in 2005.

Led by Amgen, Roche/Genentech and Johnson and Johnson, this sector grew 17.1 percent in 2005, generating sales of ...

...ba href=/insomnia/a/b.

One nationwide survey of more than 100 urologists, run by the University of California at San Francisco, found that 14.1 percent of men with localized cancers are now using androgen deprivation therapy.

Older, poorer and less-educated men, as well as those with more aggressive-seeming tumors, got the treatment more often.

The problem, Beer said, is no one has done a study randomly assigning men with local tumors to hormone deprivation or another treatment.

Such random studies are the best evidence of whether a treatment works.

Beer and co-workers didn't do that study, but rather went back to a group of men diagnosed in the mid-1990s, studying the roughly 8 percent who got hormone-blocking therapy.

Because the researchers didn't compare with a group randomly given other treatment, Beer can't say exactly how much the treatment hurt or helped.

But the death rate was high enough that Beer said androgen deprivation looks ineffective for early tumors.

He said a random trial testing the treatment is probably not a good idea because the risks apparently offer low benefits.

It's not clear why the therapy doesn't help.

Perhaps prostate tumors grow sensitive to testosterone only after they spread beyond the prostate, Beer said.

Limiting a man's hormones is still a good idea in advanced cancers, when a tumor has spread beyond the prostate, Beer stressed.

"Without question, this remains the gold-standard front-line treatment for metastatic prostate cancer," Beer said.

And...