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A genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, the maker Intrexon Corp said, citing preliminary findings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...Males of the self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito are modified so their offspring die before being able to reproduce, says Intrexon...The FDA findings agree with the draft environmental assessment submitted by Oxitec, the UK unit of Intrexon that developed the mosquito.

Drugs currently being used to treat psychosis or depression may be able to treat emerging viruses, according to new research led by the University of Leeds...The researchers found that some common drugs were able to prevent a particular virus from infecting cells by blocking the ion channels that regulate potassium levels...drugs that were able to inhibit the potassium ion channels were effective against the Bunyamwera virus...which is increasing in prevalence in Mediterranean countries, and is endemic in Africa, the Middle East, and some Asian countries...There are many drugs targeting ion channels that are currently in use for a wide range of conditions. Our work shows that some of these might be suitable to treat virus infections...If existing drugs are confirmed to be effective against known members of a particular virus family, this opens up the possibility of using these 'off-the-shelf' treatments in a rapid response against dangerous new related virus strains that emerge...

A popular smartphone app that measures blood pressure is inaccurate, missing high blood pressure readings in four out of every five patients tested, according to a research letter published online March 2 in JAMA Internal Medicine...The investigators found that, on average, the app was 12 points off for systolic and 10 points off for diastolic blood pressure. The team also found that 77.5 percent of patients with hypertensive blood pressure, defined as 140/90 mm Hg, showed normal blood pressure with the app...If someone with high blood pressure is using Instant Blood Pressure to follow their blood pressure at home, more times than not it's going to tell them they're fine...

IBM is launching a cancer initiative...teamed up with Stanford University, San Francisco State University and two UC schools—San Francisco and Berkeley—to spearhead the application of a new discipline it calls "cellular engineering" to oncology research...The idea behind cellular engineering is to scrutinize cell "morphology," or the shape and structure of cells, to get to the root of what causes tumors. Understanding that process could lead to new ways of detecting and controlling the disease, says Simone Bianco, an Italian physicist...at the IBM Almaden Research Center...I asked Bianco to explain how IBM is lending its know-how to cancer research. Here is an edited excerpt from our conversation.

• What is cellular engineering and how can it be applied to cancer?
• Once you gather information about what’s happening on a cellular level in cancer, how can it be used?
• What will IBM’s academic partners bring to this effort?
• Are there other uses for cellular engineering beyond cancer?

MinuteClinic Retail clinics, long seen as an antidote to more expensive doctor offices and emergency rooms, may actually boost medical spending by leading consumers to get more care...Rather than substituting for a physician office visit or trip to the hospital, 58 percent of retail clinic visits for minor conditions represented a new use of medical services, according to the study...the journal Health Affairs. Those additional visits led to a modest increase in overall health care spending of $14 per person per year...This challenges the conventional wisdom that retail clinics save the health care system money...The study doesn’t contradict earlier research that found retail clinics provide care that costs 30 to 40 percent less than similar care provided at a physician’s office and that the treatment for routine illnesses was of similar quality. But it suggests those savings are more than offset by increased use of medical services...health plans and employers should carefully consider how they cover care at retail clinics...If the goal is to lower costs...then encouraging use of retail clinics may not be a successful strategy...

Health apps, like prescription drugs, come with side effects, it turns out...an astoundingly large number of health apps may be sharing users’ medical information. Many can also switch on smartphone cameras and make changes to the software on your phone...More than 80 percent of the 211 diabetes apps studied did not have privacy policies. And out of a randomly selected subset of 65 apps, 56 of them used tracking cookies, which could allow them to send information about the user to other companies, such as marketing firms...sharing or selling of personal information could lead to discrimination. Users with certain medical profiles...could have a tougher time getting life insurance...The apps are not bound by HIPAA...They are free to trade, sell, and use the information in any way that they want...There’s a lot more than blood glucose tracking on these apps...the fine-print permissions that all users have to accept before downloading a diabetes app, they found that 17 percent asked to track the user’s location, 11 percent sought to switch on the smartphone camera, and 64 percent requested the ability to delete or modify information anywhere on the user’s phone...Most health apps are completely unregulated. If you don’t want your information shared or the memory on your phone tampered with, be very careful about which apps you choose to download.

Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

A prostate cancer drug developed at UCLA will provide hundreds of millions of dollars for research under a record-setting deal...Royalty Pharma...a...pharmaceutical investment company, paid $1.14 billion for royalty rights to the drug known as Xtandi (enzalutamide). It was the largest-ever technology transfer deal involving a University of California invention...UCLA pocketed $520 million of the proceeds for its 43.9% ownership stake in the drug. The funds will be placed in a portfolio that is expected to generate $60 million a year to fund campus research, scholarships for undergraduates and fellowships for graduate students. The annual haul will continue until 2027, when major patents on the drug expire.

Wal-Mart Stores said...prescription history and other basic information on a few thousand online U.S. pharmacy customers may have been visible to other users during a four-day stretch last month due to a coding mistake...We had a software coding error for a 72-hour period from February 15 to 18 that affected a limited group of online pharmacy customers...We moved quickly to fix the issue once it was discovered...The error happened during the migration of servers and was not a hack...Fewer than 5,000 users were potentially affected, a small percentage of the number of people who logged in during the 72-hour period...Wal-Mart is contacting potentially impacted customers directly and is offering them identity protection services...

New recommendations have been developed for diabetes, focusing on areas of importance for primary care providers...a systematic review to revise or clarify recommendations for diabetes diagnosis and management for primary care providers, based on new evidence. The recommendations were rated and reviewed, and approved by the American Diabetes Association Board of Directors. Feedback from the larger clinical community was incorporated...The researchers summarized the ADA standards in eight areas of importance to primary care providers: diagnosis, glycemic targets, medical management, hypoglycemia, cardiovascular risk factor management, microvascular disease screening and management, and inpatient diabetes management. An individualized approach was recommended for each area, with self-monitoring emphasized as a key component of care...