Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (”Oncolytics”) (TSX:ONC, NASDAQ:ONCY) announced that subsequent to the regulatory review period for this submission, it is proceeding with a Phase II trial to evaluate the intravenous administration of REOLYSIN® in patients with various sarcomas that have metastasized to the lung. The Principal Investigators are Dr. Glenn S. Kroog of the Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, Dr. Laurence H. [click link for full article]

Democrats and Republicans at a Senate Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday expressed concerns that Medicare Advantage plan payment reductions could affect access to care for some beneficiaries, indicating that “the chamber may take a cautious approach to reducing” the rates, [click link for full article]

The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday will mark up legislation sponsored by committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that would allow the government to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit, CQ HealthBeat reports (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 4/11). [click link for full article]

The European Court of Human Rights’ final appellate court, the Grand Chamber, on Tuesday upheld a ruling that a British woman does not have the right to use frozen embryos for in vitro fertilization without the permission of the man with whom the embryos were created, [click link for full article]

Data demonstrating genetic differences in individuals’ susceptibility to certain cancers as well as differences in how people respond to specific cancer treatments will take center stage when more than 17,000 scientists from around the world gather at the Los Angeles Convention Center April 14-18 for the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). [click link for full article]

House and Senate Democrats will not have the ability to use the budget reconciliation process to expedite approval of legislation to expand SCHIP because the Senate parliamentarian has ruled that use of the process for that purpose is not germane, CongressDaily reports. House and Senate negotiators next week will begin the reconciliation process for the fiscal year 2008 budget resolution. [click link for full article]

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche will market French biotechnology firm Transgene’s experimental human papillomavirus vaccine TG-4001 under a deal announced by the companies on Wednesday, [click link for full article]

An experimental flu vaccine made in insect cells - not in eggs, where flu vaccines currently available in the United States are grown - is safe and as effective as conventional vaccines in protecting people against the flu, according to results published in the April 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. [click link for full article]

The two most prevalent forms of genetic mental retardation, Fragile X and Down syndromes, may share a common cause, according to researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. The problem, a crippled communication network in the brain, may also be associated with autism.Although the genetics of the disorders are very different, the end result for the brain seems to be the same, said Daniel Madison, PhD, associate professor of molecular and cellular physiology. [click link for full article]

Abstinence educators have recently formed the National Abstinence Education Association and opened a Washington, D.C., office to lobby Congress against reducing funding for abstinence-based sex education programs, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports. Funding for such programs from $10 million in 1997 to $176 million this year. [click link for full article]