Micro Therapeutics Starting Trials; Companies Heading to Venture Forum
The University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine now is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Data Network. The school’s inclusion in the database came about after UCI received $1.2 million from the California Public Health Institute to help maintain data on cancer and to help researchers isolate causes.
Hoda Anton-Culver, a UCI epidemiology professor, has been named director of the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database for California outside of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. The program assembles data on cancer cases and deaths in the U.S. and monitors trends in incidence rates to track unusual changes in certain cancers. It also looks at demographic connections, such as ethnicity, gender, age and geography.
“The growing role of epidemiology and informatics in medical research can only be as effective as the data is sound,” Anton-Culver said. “You can’t find out what causes cancer without excellent data telling you where it is occurring and how often.”
Separately, a medical school research team has found that a previously unknown class of proteins chemically related to snake venom and frog skin secretions might lead to new treatments for digestive disorders.
Assistant pharmacology professor Qun-Yong Zhou and his colleagues found that the naturally occurring proteins called prokineticins controlled the movement of muscles in guinea pig intestines. Such muscles regulate the digestive system. The research suggests that prokineticins might be a key to understanding how digestion is regulated and eventually could result in better treatments for irritable bowel syndrome, chronic constipation and digestive complications of diabetes. More than 10% of Americans are estimated to have those disorders.
Results from Zhou’s study were reported in the April issue of Molecular Pharmacology. He worked with UCI professors Daniel Knauer and Frederick Ehlert, along with Ming Li and Clayton Bullock, a pair of graduate students.
Irvine Drug Maker Starting Trials
Micro Therapeutics Inc., Irvine, said it received Food and Drug Administration approval for a 106-patient trial of its Onyx treatment system. The new trial will test Onyx’s efficacy for treating arteriovenous malformations, which are masses of abnormal blood vessels that grow in the brain.
Regulatory approval for the malformations came two weeks after Micro Therapeutics received approval for a test of Onyx as an aneurysm treatment. Micro Therapeutics also said that a 60-year-old man with an aneurysm with at least one dimension exceeding 25 mm was the first completed case in its 138-patient, 15-site study.
Onyx is a liquid embolic material delivered through Micro Therapeutics’ microcatheters directly into a targeted vascular malformation.
Venture Forum
California Venture Forum selected 15 companies to showcase their businesses at its upcoming investment conference. The conference is scheduled for May 17 at the Phoenix Club in Anaheim. Dr. Melvin Schwartz, a Nobel laureate in physics, is the keynote speaker.
OC-based companies scheduled to present at the forum include Dermacel, a Laguna Niguel maker of skin care products, Global Health Check, a Laguna Niguel-based developer of a blood testing strip for various conditions, and Watch it Work, an Irvine company that’s touting its “3-D user-controlled interactive technology.”
The California Venture Forum was founded in 1994 and hosts investment conferences each May and November. According to the group, its past nine investor forums have enabled companies to raise more than $80 million in funding.
Anaheim Hospital Touts X-Ray
West Anaheim Medical Center reported that it has invested more than $1.4 million to bring an all-digital X-ray cardiovascular imaging system to its facility.
The system, called GE Innova 2000, is designed to give doctors a clearer view of a patient’s heart and vessels while reducing radiation use by half. Heart specialists say a more accurate view is important when it comes to inserting devices such as stents, guidewires and catheters.
According to West Anaheim officials, Innova already is in use at the Mayo Clinic, Sacred Heart Hospital in Oregon and Northshore University Hospital in New York. West Anaheim, a 219-bed hospital, is owned and operated by Vanguard Health Systems, a private company based in Nashville, Tenn. Vanguard’s other local facilities are La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, Huntington Beach Hospital, North Anaheim Surgicenter and Magnolia Surgery Center.
Bits and Pieces:
The California Dental Association, Sacramento, held its spring scientific session earlier this month at the Anaheim Convention Center. More than 31,000 dental professionals and exhibitors of dental products and equipment were expected to attend. One of the programs was a conference designed for helping students make the transition into practicing dentistry Larry Zarin, vice president of corporate and brand development for Express Scripts, will discuss “Managing the Pharmaceutical Landscape” at the May 10 meeting of the Orange County Employee Benefit Council. The program runs from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Irvine Marriott. For information: (714) 573-8605.
