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Harvard University’s Provost and Interim President Dr. Alan Garber has made millions from sitting on pharmaceutical company boards during his time with the school. Garber made more than $2.7 million from board seats with pharmaceutical firms Exelixis, Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals since becoming Harvard provost in 2011, the Harvard Crimson reported in 2019, citing company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Both firms confirmed to the outlet Garber received compensation without performing any additional duties beyond his board memberships. ... He joined Exelixis’ board in 2005 and received $2.3 million from the company, $1.6 of which came after...

The mucus in the airways is not as sticky, and inflammation in the lungs is significantly reduced: Triple combination therapy can achieve these positive, lasting effects in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Researchers have just recently published their findings. According to their research, this form of medication improves the symptoms of CF in many patients. Two years ago, a research group showed that combination therapy involving three drugs—elexacaftor, tezacaftor, and ivacaftor—is effective in a large portion of patients with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease, meaning that the treatment noticeably improves both lung function and quality of life. Now, the team...

Pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 and pneumococcus can cause severe pneumonia. If the airways then fill with fluid, the patient risks developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. Researchers have now discovered the molecular mechanisms that trigger fluid accumulation in the lungs. This development also led them to discover a potential new therapy: A cystic fibrosis drug proved effective in their laboratory experiments, raising hope that this could be used to treat pneumonia regardless of the pathogen that caused it. The study centered on the CFTR chloride channel, which scientists know is mainly found in the mucosal cells of our airways. There, it...

Children ages two to five who have the most common form of cystic fibrosis (CF), caused by two copies of the F508 gene mutation, have not had any modulator treatments available to them until recently. A new study authored by researchers at Children's Hospital Colorado and published May 6, 2021, in Lancet Respiratory Medicine shows that the CFTR modulator—lumacaftor/ivacaftor—can be safe and well-tolerated for this age range for up to 120 weeks, allowing younger children to begin proactive treatment of CF earlier in their lives. CF affects more than 70,000 people worldwide and is a chronic, progressive, life-shortening genetic disease...

The Cut recently ran a piece by Jen Gann, an outspoken, pro-choice mother who details her journey through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and genetic testing as she aims to conceive a healthy child. Her first pregnancy resulted in a son with cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening disease, and what she considers a missed opportunity to abort him. In 2017, Gann filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her doctors for inadequate genetic testing that she claims would have likely determined her son had cystic fibrosis and would have then provided her the option to abort him. I responded to her lawsuit two...

A six-year-old girl has written to Theresa May asking if she and her sister can have a new drug that could potentially prolong their lives. Both Imogen Fare, 6, and her two-year-old sister Annabelle suffer from cystic fibrosis (CF). Imogen, who lives with her family in Conwy, Wales, has written to Theresa May asking for access to the drug Orkambi. She wrote: ‘Dear Mrs May, I have C.F. so does my little sister Annabelle. We would really like Orkambi to keep us well and help us live a long and happy life.’ ‘We both like swimming and playing outside love...

I hate to bother people with vanity posts but a friend of mine and her husband need all the prayers they can get. She just lost her 23 year old son today to Cystic Fibrosis. He had just recently been added to a lung and heart transplant list. He needed the heart transplant because his diseased lungs had damaged his heart. What makes this doubly painful is that she lost her other son to this horrendous disease a few years ago. He died at age 12. They have no more children. Please pray for my friend, her husband and family....

A Gallatin County jury ruled against a Gardiner woman who was seeking money for her daughter born with cystic fibrosis. After about two hours of deliberations, the 12-person jury ruled that Livingston HealthCare nurse Peggy Scanson and Bozeman OBGYN Dr. William Peters did not violate their standard of care with Kerrie Evans. The verdict came on the ninth day of the trial, held before Gallatin County District Judge Mike Salvagni. Evans sued in 2011 after her daughter, now 5, was born with cystic fibrosis. Evans’ attorneys Casey Magan and Russ Waddell argued that during Evans’ pregnancy, Evans had chorionic villus...

From a very good friend of Teresa (Arasina): "Got the terrible news I'd been half expecting. Early this morning Teresa (arasina @Free Republic) has passed on to be with the Lord due to complications with what was an acute case of cystic fibrosis. Her lungs simply would not respond. Even with her oxygen machine she could not quite get enough oxygen. All that could be done at that point was sedation. On Saturday I'd called but she immediately said she couldn't speak. Yesterday I regrettably didn't reach out...and this AM Teresa's niece left the message of the bad news. The...

In 2012, Michaela and Christopher were at their 20-week ultrasound patiently waiting to find out if they were having a boy or a girl. However, instead of finding out the sex of their baby they were told that their child had some very serious health problems and that they should consider abortion. Michaela explained, “As we went for our routine 20 week scan we were excited to find out if it was definitely a girl we were having, it was the happiest day of our lives after having our two sons Kaiden (4) and Bayley (2). We were scanned for...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study has identified a gene mutation that researchers estimate dates back to 11,600 B.C., making it the second oldest human disease mutation yet discovered. Researchers with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute led the study and estimate that the mutation arose in the Middle East some 13,600 years ago. Only a mutation seen in cystic fibrosis that arose between 11,000 and 52,000 years ago is believed to be older. The investigators described the mutation in people of Arabic, Turkish and Jewish ancestry....

(LiveActionNews) — When I was pregnant with my first child, there was a slight indication that I might be a carrier for a genetic condition called cystic fibrosis. But my doctor said that CF wasn’t a reason to terminate – not that I would have anyway – and that they test for it during newborn screening.CF is a chronic condition that affects the entire body, but most specifically the lungs and pancreas. Life expectancy is currently 40 years old. But according to a Kaiser Permanente study, at least 87% of those whose unborn children are diagnosed with CF abort their...

FLINT (WWJ) - A Flint man dying from cystic fibrosis is holding out hope he will live to see his 21st birthday next week, and his mother is making sure he gets a couple of last wishes granted. “The first day, we got like 13 cards in the mail from people we didn’t even know, the second day we got like 54 cards, yesterday we got about 39 cards. It’s just from all over, different states, and they’re all writing personal notes on there, like ‘Oh, I have a son with cystic fibrosis’ or ‘Hang in there and keep fighting.’...

My heart is broken for you, Addie Morfoot. I can feel the regret, the pain, the torture in the words you shared at Salon.com this week. The sheer thought of what you did to your undoubtedly beautiful, smart, and resilient daughter makes my stomach turn and sends chills through my body – a body which carries a defective cystic fibrosis gene. Just like yours. And just like your Annie, my “Peanut” has cystic fibrosis. I can only imagine what the thought of your actions must do to you. I want to tell you that it’s okay. Because I know that...

<p>Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl dying of cystic fibrosis, is receiving her long-awaited lung transplant.</p> <p>According to a Facebook post from Sarah’s mother, Janet, the family received word this morning of new lungs that had been made available, and Sarah is currently in surgery. The operation could take anywhere from six to 12 hours.</p>

A dying girl who needs a lung transplant and only has weeks to live has will receive the long-awaited lung transplant she so desperately needs. Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl dying of cystic fibrosis, received national attention after HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius refused to help.

Sarah Murgnahan, the 10-year-old girl dying of cystic fibrosis, is getting a brand new pair of lungs.

A locally waged battle against cystic fibrosis has yielded an experimental drug combination that is giving new hope to families affected by a disease that historically has meant death at an early age. In a clinical trial, Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge found that a combination of its drug Kalydeco, which won federal regulatory approval only four months ago, and the experimental drug VX-809 substantially improved breathing for some cystic fibrosis patients. “I never dreamed we’d have this day,” said Joe O’Donnell, who has raised about $250 million for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation over the past 35 years and lost his...

Adding inhaled dry powder mannitol to standard therapy for cystic fibrosis produced sustained improvement in lung function for up to 52 weeks, according to a new study. Along with the treatment's efficacy and good safety profile, the convenience and ease of administration of mannitol treatment may improve adherence with therapy in these patients. In the double-blind study, which was supported by Pharmaxis Limited, 318 patients were randomized to treatment with 400 mg bid inhaled mannitol or 50 mg bid inhaled mannitol (control group) for 26 weeks, followed by an additional 26 weeks of open-label active treatment. A 50 mg dose...

A vampire-like bacteria that leeches onto specific other bacteria – including certain human pathogens – has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates. The bacterium, Micavibrio aeruginosavorus, was discovered to inhabit wastewater nearly 30 years ago, but has not been extensively studied because it is difficult to culture and investigate using traditional microbiology techniques. However, biologists in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences, Martin Wu and graduate student Zhang Wang, have decoded its genome and are learning "how it makes its living," Wu said. The bacterium...