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Autopsy Shows Withdrawn Drug Was Helping Man With Parkinson'sBy Randolph E. Schmid Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 1, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - A drug withdrawn from clinical trials because of safety concerns was helping regrow nerve fibers in the brain of a man with Parkinson's disease, scientists report. The finding probably will renew debate over the drug, GDNF. It had offered encouragement to people with Parkinson's who reported improvement when using it in trials. But the drug was withdrawn by the manufacturer, Amgen Inc., this year. Some of those patients in the trial sued Amgen to get continued supplies of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) and Senator Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) bipartisan FDA Modernization Act 2.0 to end animal testing mandates. This legislation ends an outdated FDA mandate that experimental drugs must be tested on animals before they are used on humans in clinical trials. The bill doesn’t ban animal testing outright but would allow the option for drug sponsors to use alternative methods where they are suitable. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Mike Braun (R-IN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Susan Collins (R-ME), Angus King (D-ME),...

A letter sent Tuesday from members of Congress to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm is demanding a “prompt and thorough investigation” into the National Institutes of Health’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party-run Wuhan Institute of Virology. The 28 congressional signers, led by Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., write: "The NIH, unfortunately, has played a major role in supporting [the Wuhan Institute of Virology] and this treacherous research and the promotion of spurious claims dismissing the NIH-funded lab’s potential role in the COVID-19 pandemic." The Wuhan Institute of Virology is suspected by experts, including...

Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, whose real name was Ali Mohammed al-Fakheri, 46, took his own life in his prison cell, according to the Libyan newspaper Oea. Information gained from the interrogation of al-Libi was cited on several occasions by the Bush administration as justification for the war in Iraq. He told his CIA interrogators that al-Qaeda had sent two men to Iraq to seek training in chemical and biological weapons in December 2000. Classified documents added that the men did not return, so al-Libi did not know whether the training took place, and that, in any case, he was probably "intentionally...

Obscure al-Qaida Chemist Worries Experts By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent 7 minutes ago He's a mystery in a red beard, with a strange alias and a degree in chemical engineering. In the hands of this alleged al-Qaida operative, it's a specialty that summons visions of poison gas and mass terror. Al-Qaida is "wedded to the spectacular," notes U.S. counterterrorism analyst Donald Van Duyn, and elusive Egyptian chemist Midhat Mursi was said to be exploring such possibilities when last seen, brewing up deadly compounds and gassing dogs in Afghanistan. Van Duyn's FBI and other U.S. agencies are interested enough...