News

Boehringer Ingelheim recently announced the enrollment of the first patient in its global, double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled SENSCIS (Safety and Efficacy of Nintedanib in Systemic SClerosIS) Phase 3 clinical trial. The trial (NCT02597933) is now enrolling patients, and is evaluating the safety and the efficacy of nintedanib in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)…

Researchers from Japan described ways to predict the progression and severity of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in people with left heart disease. Their paper, a review of standard and emerging methods for assessing the lung disease, is titled “The Roles of Classic and Current Prognostic Factors in Pulmonary Hypertension Due…

German President Joachim Gauck has awarded the 2015 Deutscher Zukunftspreis, which honors innovation in science and technology, to a pulmonary hypertension (PH) research team that discovered and developed a drug effective in the treatment of two serious types of the disease. The winning team — led by Professor Ardeschir Ghofrani from the University Clinic…

Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. recently announced in a press release that a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been issued for the U.S. patent application 13/829,321, titled “Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension with Leukotriene Inhibitors” covering Bestatin™ (ubenimex), a leukotriene A4hydrolase (LTA4H) inhibitor, for treating…

The Sacramento Santa Run, now in its third year, is holding a 5k Run/Walk and a Merry Mile event on Saturday, Dec. 19, to benefit the California Chapter of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA). The full-day charity event opens at 7 a.m. with race registration and the run/walk itself, beginning at the State…

Researchers have developed a computer tomography pulmonary embolism residua index (CTPER-index) that may prove to be a useful tool for diagnosis and treatment decisions regarding chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension and dyspnea. The research paper, “Computed tomography pulmonary embolism residua index (CTPER-index): a simple tool for pulmonary embolism residua description,” was…

In a new study, researchers observed that intrapulmonary vascular dilatations (IPVDs), essential features of hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS), were more commonly found than expected in a study evaluating patients with portopulmonary hypertension, leading to a recommendation that all such patients be screened for IPVD. The research paper, titled “Intrapulmonary vascular dilatations…

A recent study suggests that RNA fragments called microRNAs (miRNAs), long thought of as genetic “junk,” actually control the production of endothelial cells, whose over-proliferation is responsible for the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH). The study, published in the Experimental Biology and Medicine journal, is titled “microRNA-125a in pulmonary…

Haifa, Israel-based Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. announced that it has received a notice from United Therapeutics Corporation ending its licensing agreement for development of the cell-based candidate PLX-PAD for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Under the agreement’s terms, Pluristem will recover full rights to PLX-PAD and retain all…

SteadyMed, a pharmaceutical company whose focus is the development of products to treat orphan diseases with unmet clinical needs, has announced promising results from an animal study evaluating the efficacy of its lead drug product Trevyent® in the reduction of the pain associated with the use of United Therapeutics’ Remodulin® to treat pulmonary…

In a new study, researchers determined that elevated serum bilirubin levels and a low 6-minute walk distance are predictors of poor prognosis in patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. The research — whose findings appear to offer important disease prognosis markers — is titled “Serum Bilirubin and 6-min Walk Distance as Prognostic Predictors…

Residents of the Canadian province of Ontario affected by pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) gathered at the Queen’s Park provincial legislature in Toronto this week in hope of convincing Ontario’s Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins to make the drug Opsumit (macitentan) publicly accessible as a treatment option for Ontario…