News

Dublin, Ireland-based pharmaceutical company Actavis plc has submitted an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding its generic version of the drug Letairis, originally marketed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. The company is now waiting for the decision from the FDA on…

A research team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) recently made significant advances in understanding what causes Pulmonary hypertension (PH). The study published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine has important implications for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of PH in people at-risk of developing the disease.

Affecting more than 80 million Americans each year, poor sleep quality has been associated with increased risks of stroke, dementia, headaches and several cardiovascular issues, including atrial fibrillation, and heart failure. Sleep disorders are also believed to be a factor contributing to pulmonary hypertension. Despite increasing numbers of people diagnosed…

A new pilot clinical trial for Pulmonary Hypertension in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is now recruiting participants – U.S. veterans between 40 to 85 years old and suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease who are willing to participate (the study accepts both males and females). The study is entitled…

The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) has publicly announced its support for the Patients’ Access to Treatments Act (PATA), which is currently being debated in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bi-partisan legislation was presented last week by representatives David B. McKinley (R-WV) and Lois Capps (D-CA) and is designed to reduce…

Actelion recently announced that it has received marketing approval for Opsumit®, the trade name for macitentan, as a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) from Japan’s Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare. This approval was supported by data collected from a local assessment conducted in Japan and data from the SERAPHIN study, a…

A recent study published in the journal PLoS One found that a single dose of Sildenafil is not associated with clinical improvement of right ventricular (RV) function as measured by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients with PH-related heart failure (HF). Heart failure…

A new study recently published in The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation demonstrated the accuracy and utility of a risk score calculator to predict the one-year survival in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. The study is entitled “Prognostic implications of serial risk…

Researchers from the German Center of Lung Research (DZL), Hannover Medical School in Germany recently released findings from a study in which they investigated the theory that the capillary pCO2 (pcCO2) may help in distinguishing between idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) and pulmonary hypertension due to heart failure with preserved ejection…

The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) is organizing another edition of its monthly Patient Telephone Support Group to help people diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension meet other patients and deal with the isolation and burden associated with the disease. This month, the meeting is taking place on March…

A research team from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands recently found that using a combination of assessments for ventricular pressure and pulmonary artery (PA) improves the likelihood of detecting pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients assessed with computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA). In their study, Onno…

Inhaled Nitric Oxide (iNO) is an FDA approved drug used both in term and near-term neonates suffering from respiratory failure due to pulmonary hypertension. Despite the fact that the drug does not offer clinical benefit in preterm neonates, iNO is still prescribed for these patients, according to a study of researchers…