Health Care Sector Update for 01/16/2015: PIP,SIGA,RVP,BDX,NVGN

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Top Health Care Stocks

JNJ +1.64%

PZE +1.14%

MRK +1.21%

ABT +1.62%

AMGN +3.97%

Health care stocks were pushing to their best levels of the session with the NYSE Health Care Sector Index ahead by 1.2% and shares of health care companies in the S&P 500 adding 1.9% as a group.

In company news, PharmAthene ( PIP ) turned lower again this afternoon despite the Delaware Court of Chancery late Thursday adding $81.5 million in interest and other costs to the $113 million previously awarded to the biotech company in its long legal fight with one-time partner SIGA Technologies over its Tecovirimat smallpox antiviral.

PIP sued SIGA over eight years ago, arguing it deserved a share of the potential profits for Tecovirimat after helping fund its development. The Delaware court earlier this month agreed with those claims, awarding PIP $113 million for lost profits, with yesterday's decision lifting the amount now owed above $194 million.

The meter also is continuing to run for SIGA, with the court yesterday ordering it to pay $30,663.89 per day in interest while the company appeals the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court.

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Health Care Sector Update for 01/16/2015: PIP,SIGA,RVP,BDX,NVGN

New genetic clues found in fragile X syndrome

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Scientists have gained new insight into fragile X syndrome -- the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability -- by studying the case of a person without the disorder, but with two of its classic symptoms.

In patients with fragile X, a key gene is completely disabled, eliminating a protein that regulates electrical signals in the brain and causing a host of behavioral, neurological and physical symptoms. This patient, in contrast, had only a single error in this gene and exhibited only two classic traits of fragile X -- intellectual disability and seizures -- allowing the researchers to parse out a previously unknown role for the gene.

"This individual case has allowed us to separate two independent functions of the fragile X protein in the brain," said co-senior author Vitaly A. Klyachko, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "By finding the mutation, even in just one patient, and linking it to a partial set of traits, we have identified a distinct function that this gene is responsible for and that is likely impaired in all people with fragile X."

The research, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early Edition in December and in the print issue Jan. 5, is by investigators at Washington University and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

In studying fragile X, researchers' focus long has been on the problems that occur when brain cells receive signals. Like radio transmitters and receivers, brain cells send and receive transmissions in fine tuned ways that separate the signals from the noise. Until recently, most fragile X research has focused on problems with overly sensitive receivers, those that allow in too much information. The new study suggests that fragile X likely also causes overactive transmitters that send out too much information.

"The mechanisms that researchers have long thought were the entirety of the problem with fragile X are obviously still very much in play," Klyachko said. "But this unique case has allowed us to see that something else is going on."

The finding also raises the possibility that drugs recently tested as treatments for fragile X may be ineffective, at least in part, because they only dialed down the brain's receivers, presumably leaving transmitters on overdrive.

Fragile X syndrome results from an inherited genetic error in a gene called FMR1. The error prevents the manufacture of a protein called FMRP. Loss of FMRP is known to affect how cells in the brain receive signals, dialing up the amount of information allowed in. The gene is on the X chromosome, so the syndrome affects males more often and more severely than females, who may be able to compensate for the genetic error if their second copy of FMR1 is normal.

Patients with fragile X have a range of symptoms. One of the mysteries of the syndrome is how loss of a single gene can lead to such a variety of effects in different patients. Some patients are profoundly intellectually disabled, unable to talk or communicate. Others are only mildly affected. Patients often experience seizures, anxiety and impulsive behavior. Typical physical symptoms include enlarged heads, flat feet and distinctive facial features. Almost one-third of patients with fragile X also show symptoms of autism spectrum disorders.

To gain insight into what else FMRP might do, the researchers plumbed genetic sequencing data from more than 900 males with intellectual disabilities but without classic fragile X syndrome. They looked for mutations in the FMR1 gene that might impair the protein but not eliminate it entirely. Even in this relatively large sample size, they only found one patient with abnormal FMRP, resulting from a change in a single letter of the gene's DNA code.

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New genetic clues found in fragile X syndrome

The Top 9 Books About The Future Of Medicine – The Medical Futurist – Video

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The Top 9 Books About The Future Of Medicine - The Medical Futurist
I #39;ve been reading amazing books that focus on the future of medicine, what changes we can expect to see in healthcare in a few years #39; time from different angles and perspectives so I thought...

By: The Medical Futurist

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The Top 9 Books About The Future Of Medicine - The Medical Futurist - Video

The Global Economy’s Effect on Irish Hotels – Futurist Speaker – Video

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The Global Economy #39;s Effect on Irish Hotels - Futurist Speaker
The global economy and the impact on the Irish hotel industry. The global economic crisis showed the future power of the emerging markets who remained in growth even in the crisis years. Long...

By: Patrick Dixon Futurist Keynote Speaker for Industry Conference

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The Global Economy's Effect on Irish Hotels - Futurist Speaker - Video

Elon Musk Tries To Woo John Carmack Back To Rockets With SpaceXs Drone Ship Impact

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Genius futurist, entrepreneur and expert Twiterrer Elon Musk revealed some new information about SpaceXs most recent reusable rocket landing attempt following the launch of its Dragon space capsule to resupply the International Space Station. In a conversation with John Carmack, formerly of ID and current VR software guru at Oculus, Musk shared still frames from SpaceXs autonomous seafaring drone landing ship, which show the rockets RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) in spectacular glory.

Musk had previously revealed that the rocket landed hard, but despite its fantastic fireball, the test was actually a relative success for SpaceXs efforts to recapture its first stage rocket for re-use. Explosions arent always signs of failure when youre dealing with science, and in the case of spacefaring tech thats even more true.

After posting the photos (and new SpaceX Vine, just added) above, Musk also reiterated that SpaceX will get another chance to test the landing and recovery capabilities of its reusable rockets and the autonomous barges it is using as mobile landing platforms in about two to three weeks time. With his trademark wry humour, he said the next test would involve way more hydraulic fluid, and that it sh[ould] explode for a diff[erent] reason at the very least. Failing for new reasons is basically the definition of scientific progress, is basically what hes getting at.

Musk ended his flurry of tweets saying his motivation in posting the photos to Carmack is a desire to get the legendary programmer back into aerospace tech. Carmack founded Armadillo Aerospace back in 2000, with the aim of building suborbital space tourism spacecraft, but essentially shuttered the project in 2013, so Musk may be only half-kidding.

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Elon Musk Tries To Woo John Carmack Back To Rockets With SpaceXs Drone Ship Impact

SpaceX Releases Footage Of Failed Reusable Rocket Landing

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Last Saturday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off to the International Space Station, carrying cargo, scientific experiments, and supplies. It successfully berthed to the International Space Station without a hitch.

But one interesting aspect of the liftoff is that SpaceX was using the opportunity to test its first stage rocket, which the company is attempting to make reusable in order to drive down the costs of its launches. The company has previously tested a descent of a first stage into the water, but those rockets didnt survive.

On Saturday, SpaceX tried something new landing the rocket on a drone barge floating in the ocean. The test failed, however, and the rocket was destroyed on impact. (Something that CEO Elon Musk referred to jokingly on Twitter as a rapid unscheduled disassembly.)

Today, SpaceX released some footage of the attempted landing, which you can see below:

Close, but no cigar, the company noted in an accompanying tweet. This time.

In a separate Tweet, Musk said that the company would be trying it again with another launch in 2-3 weeks. This time, with way more hydraulic fluid.

At least it [should] explode for a [different] reason, he tweeted.

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SpaceX Releases Footage Of Failed Reusable Rocket Landing

Freedom of expression debate: Pope Francis in the Philippines and threatens Alberto Gasparri – Video

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Freedom of expression debate: Pope Francis in the Philippines and threatens Alberto Gasparri
While on a plane to the Philippines, Pope Francis made some comments about the recent Paris terrorist attack some think weren #39;t so holy. When asked about the relationship between freedom...

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Freedom of expression debate: Pope Francis in the Philippines and threatens Alberto Gasparri - Video

France’s Hollande Defends Freedom of Speech After Anti-Hebdo Clashes Abroad – Video

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France #39;s Hollande Defends Freedom of Speech After Anti-Hebdo Clashes Abroad
French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday that anti-Charlie Hebdo protesters in other countries do not understand France #39;s attachment to freedom of speech. He was speaking a day after...

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France's Hollande Defends Freedom of Speech After Anti-Hebdo Clashes Abroad - Video

Freedom and restraint

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Pope Franciss recent statement that he would punch anyone who insulted his mother reminded one of a heated discussion on Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses by a group of train passengers. As the dispute got animated, a Muslim youth enraged a Rushdie supporter by making offensive comments about the latters parents. Then, apologising for the outrage, the young man said: I did this only to give you a sense of the outrage that Muslims feel. What I just told you is a passage from The Satanic Verses, replacing the names of the Prophet and his wife with your fathers and mothers. For a Muslim believer, the Prophet and his wife are manifold more respected than his own parents.

However, what is offensive is a matter of subjective feelings, and therefore, cannot be a reason for restricting an individuals freedom of expression, which must be absolute, the liberal opinion concluded, after the massacre of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists who drew offensive cartoons.

My right to free speech has to be absolute, and if you are offended, you have the right to respond. But if we start placing restrictions, we are shaking the foundations of tolerance for views that one finds disagreeable, and tolerance has to be one of the foundations of a true democracy, Rakesh Sharma, documentary film-maker, says.

The cartoonists apparently drew with the purpose of making Muslims immune to the ridicule heaped on the Prophet. Around the same time, in yet another episode in India, the writer Perumal Murugan has been forced into a creative exile as a section of society felt hurt over one of his works.

Both events have been debated primarily as a question of freedom of expression, but the more fundamental issue at stake is the terms of engagement between various cultures in a multicultural society. That similarity apart, the two incidents highlight divergent challenges in their respective contexts of France and India. In France, the cartoonists were promoting a French culture in which individual freedoms are absolute and collective sensibilities overlooked. Murugans case is part of an ongoing political project to eradicate multiple voices for the sake of a grand cultural narrative, a claimed collective hurt shutting out an individual.

The Charlie Hebdo episode questions the desirability of an assimilative approach to diverse cultures; Perumal Murugans literary suicide represents the dangers that lurk behind Indias multicultural existence.

Inclusive state, inclusive society

While in most Western societies, individual rights are absolute and community rights limited or non-existent, in India, the situation is the opposite. While individual rights are not respected, community is valorised and glorified in India. Individual rights still do not command social legitimacy as opposed to the sentiment of collective hurt. The hurt sentiment phrase is often quoted to define or represent the feelings of a larger group and rarely of an individual, when outrage is created. And this is when vested interests can latch on to hurt sentiments to accentuate any act that supposedly critiques a group or tradition or culture as it has happened in the case of Murugan.

Experts say there is a clear exploitation of religiosity in projecting hurt sentiment. Whose hurt sentiments, the question is. Individual right is not established while community rights, which are valorised and glorified, are easy to manipulate, says Subhash Gatade, author.

It is not that the individuals right to criticise others, including communities and religions, should be made absolute. Criticism should be given space, but it should be done under a certain sense, under a limit. There are no two views to blocking out inflammatory material, but a censure to all forms of criticism is not the solution. We must give soft directions to people and not merely censure, says Badri Narayan, Professor at the G.B. Pant Institute of Social Sciences, Allahabad.

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Freedom and restraint

Mortal Kombat Anthology – LK-52 (aka Cyborg Sub-Zero) playthrough (2015) – Video

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Mortal Kombat Anthology - LK-52 (aka Cyborg Sub-Zero) playthrough (2015)
El-KAY-FAHVE-TWOO! I wanted to make a playthrough with LK-52 in the old Mortal Kombat Anthology again. It #39;s like the replaythrough of my first run in this MKP game. This time I manage to do...

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Mortal Kombat Anthology - LK-52 (aka Cyborg Sub-Zero) playthrough (2015) - Video