Pfizer Inc announced today results from two Phase 1 safety studies, one of PF-04360365, a humanized anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody (mAb), and another of dimebon (latrepirdine*) in combination with donepezil HCl tablets, in patients with Alzheimer"s disease.1,2 Based on the Phase 1 study results, PF-04360365 has advanced into Phase 2.3 Dimebon (latrepirdine), being co-developed by Pfizer and Medivation Inc., is in Phase 3 development.4 These data were presented this week at the Alzheimer"s Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer"s Disease (ICAD) in Vienna, Austria.
Despite "the flimsy arguments" that some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee made for opposing the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, she "clearly belongs on the court," a New York Times editorial states. Although Sotomayor sometimes avoided "forthright answers on important legal issues" during the confirmation hearings, she consistently "showed an impressive command of the law," according to the editorial.Claims
that Sotomayor would not be able to resist "judicial activism" and that she would be "overly influenced by "personal preferences"" if she were to serve on the court are "strikingly weak," the editorial states. 
An international team of researchers has identified a new method for selectively killing metastatic melanoma cells, which may lead to new areas for drug development in melanoma - a cancer that is highly resistant to current treatment strategies. Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, in collaboration with a team of researchers led by Maria S. Soengas, Ph.D., with the Spanish National Cancer Research Center in Madrid, Spain, found that activation of a specific
molecular pathway triggers melanoma cells to begin a process of self-destruction - through self-digestion and programmed cell death. The study is published in the August 4 print issue of the journal Cancer Cell. 
UK clinical research is currently benefiting from significant additional investment from Government and other research funders. A challenge for funders and institutions is to allocate res across the range of clinical academic specialties, to most effectively pursue research and its translation into improved healthcare. The Academy"s Clinical Academic Careers Committee, chaired by Professor Patrick Sissons FMedSci, has published a report providing guidance on how funding
and re should be used to support clinical academic specialties. 
Middle aged people who smoke, have high blood pressure or diabetes are far more likely to develop dementia in later life, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. People should consider modifying their lifestyle in mid-life to avoid developing dementia, claims the US research. Dementia is a growing public health problem affecting older people in developed countries. In the US, where the research took place, estimates
show that one in six people older than 70 have dementia. Estimates are that the number of people with dementia will grow threefold by 2050, compared with 2000.