Pennsylvania Hospital has announced that it has been named an American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence®. The ASMBS Center of Excellence designation recognizes surgical programs with a demonstrated track record of favorable outcomes in bariatric surgery.

In an appropriate prelude to American Heart Month, which is just ahead in February, new mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that, since 1999, coronary heart disease and stroke age-adjusted death rates are down by 25.8 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively. This means that the American Heart Association’s 2010 strategic goal for reducing deaths from coronary heart disease has been achieved, and for stroke nearly achieved - ahead of time.

Researchers at the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences have put forward the viewpoint for the first time that adaptive functional evolution may occur in the leptin protein of the pika (Ochotona) family, a typical cold-adaptive mammal. They speculated that the cold, rather than hypoxia, may be the primary environmental factor that drives the adaptive evolution of pika leptin. This study is published in the January 23 issue of PLoS ONE.

David Chu (not his real name), a native of Vietnam arrived in Philadelphia with his family in 1980 at the age of three with little knowledge of the language or region. The family brought with them the view that mental illness is something other than a medical condition, a largely Asian notion.

ImaRx Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMRX) announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company’s most current lot release request for urokinase drug product. This is the first lot to be released with extended expiration dating. Urokinase, ImaRx’s first commercially available FDA-approved product, is a thrombolytic or clot-dissolving agent indicated for the treatment of acute massive pulmonary embolism.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) and Affymax, Inc. (Nasdaq: AFFY) announced that Takeda has dosed the first patient in the United States in a clinical trial of the investigational new drug, Hematide(TM), for the treatment of anemia in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Investigators of the Diabetes Research Center at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have isolated cells from the pancreas of adult mice that formed insulin-producing beta cells. Because nobody had been able to identify these elusive progenitors from adult organisms before, their existence has been questioned. The research group of Harry Heimberg reports these findings in the January 25 issue of the leading edge scientific journal Cell.

With many women still searching for the perfect birth control method, a systematic review analyzes a host of studies comparing the contraceptive skin patch or vaginal ring to the pill. Although perfection remains elusive and choices are equally effective, the review authors were able to pinpoint some preferences. “Basically, all of these methods were similar in preventing pregnancy,” said lead investigator Laureen Lopez, Ph.D.

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for tapentadol hydrochloride immediate release (IR) tablets, an investigational oral analgesic for the relief of moderate to severe acute pain.

Cephalon, Inc., (Nasdaq: CEPH) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the company’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for FENTORA(R) (fentanyl buccal tablet) [C-II] for the management of breakthrough pain in opioid-tolerant patients with chronic pain. In addition, the FDA notified the Company that it will convene an advisory committee panel on May 6, 2008, to consider this application.