A San Francisco biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule products for use in organ transplants and metabolic diseases including diabetes has raised $480,000, presumably to advance its lead candidates toward commercialization.The first of Limerick BioPharma’s lead candidates, LIM-0705, is designed to improve the safety of existing immunosuppressive drugs used to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients. [...]

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) is settling more than 20,000 Avandia cases in a deal reached in court-ordered mediation.Bloomberg News reports that the British pharmaceutical giant reached the deal last month as part of the company’s efforts to resolve legal issues over the last decade surrounding the former blockbuster type 2 diabetes drug.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) and AstraZeneca’s (NYSE:AZN) jointly developed treatment for type 2 diabetes has been turned down by U.S. regulators until lingering questions over the diabetes drug’s benefits and risks are addressed.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has requested additional clinical data on dapagliflozin to better assess the benefit-risk profile for the drug, including clinical [...]

Paula Deen, the Food Network TV star notable for both her Southern drawl and butter-and-cream-drenched recipes, is fighting type 2 diabetes, she announced Tuesday.Her partner in that fight is Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk.The two have launched a new website — diabetesinanewlight.com — where the cooking show host and author is paid by Novo Nordisk to [...]

Current medical news from today, including thousands of uninsured diabetes patients will gain Medicaid eligibility under U.S. healthcare reform laws, Bristol-Myers Squibb raises offer on Inhibitex by 30 percent, and smaller physician practices adopt tablets.

By far, consumer health and fitness apps and devices ruled the exhibitor floor at the 2012 Digital Health Summit. But arguably the second-most popular theme for new digital health technology was diabetes and obesity-management platforms and devices.There are already hundreds of diabetes-related apps and devices on the market that allow patients to track and store [...]

Akebia Therapeutics has spun off a new company, the similarly named Aerpio Therapeutics, to develop drugs for diabetic macular edema and inflammatory bowel disease.Akebia will continue developing its oral anemia drug candidate, according to a statement from the Cincinnati-area company.var page_count = “off”; if (typeof [...]

A medical device company with a glucose monitoring system offering needle-free technology providing a constant reading of glucose levels for diabetics sees opportunities for transdermal drug-delivery uses for the product.Echo Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ECTE) is poised to begin a new clinical trial of its glucose monitoring system next month, this time for critical care patients. The move [...]

Medtronic(NYSE:MDT), the maker of new innovative medical devices, announced the U.S. launch of a new remote glucose monitor that allows caregivers to be aware of glucose levels of the patient in another room.Describing mySentry as a first-of-its-kind monitor, Medtronic said that it would allow parents and other caregivers to know in real time glucose levels [...]

Drug discovery startup NovaTarg is ramping up preclinical research in preparation of an expected investigational new drug application filing for the company’s first drug candidate — a new hepatitis C treatment .The Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based company now has a $30,000 loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to help its efforts. The Biotech [...]