Content about Endocrine system

CRAWLEY, England — An insulin pen for children made by Novo Nordisk has won a design award, the company said Wednesday.

The Danish drug maker won the 2010 Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies for its NovoPen Echo, used to treat Type 1 diabetes. The annual award, which the two organizations have given since 1950, are the oldest and among the most coveted for design and innovation, Novo Nordisk said.

NEW YORK — The magazine of the American Diabetes Association has released its annual consumer guide in its January issue.

Diabetes Forecast highlighted what's new and on the horizon for the six categories of diabetes-management products, including blood-glucose meters and insulin pens and pumps, as well as diabetes drugs available in the United States, ranked by type and popularity. The guide also spotlighted mobile applications and what devices they can be used for.

NEW YORK — This past year saw a lower-than-usual number of new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, due in part to delays at the agency, according to published reports.

The Wall Street Journal reported that 21 new drugs were approved through the year, compared with 25 in 2009 and 24 in 2008. The lag came in part due to stricter safety regulations, the newspaper reported.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first and only low-dose oral contraceptive to combine 0.8-mg norethindrone and 0.025-mg ethinyl estradiol in a chewable form, with four 75-mg ferrous fumarate (iron) placebo tablets, Watson Pharmaceuticals has announced.

Watson's new oral contraceptive is positioned as a novel alternative to currently available birth control pills, and the dosing combination and 24-day active hormone regimen is intended to provide users with a low level of breakthrough bleeding and short, light, predictable periods.

NEW YORK — In patients with Type 1 diabetes, the islet cells of the pancreas are destroyed, thus eliminating the organ’s ability to produce insulin.

But researchers at Georgetown University have found a way to recreate them using cells from the testicles, according to published reports.

WebMD reported that the researchers took the testicular tissue, extracted the stem cells and used them to create new islet cells. Injecting them into the pancreases of mice with diabetes. The researchers found that the cells began to secrete insulin.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — An investigational drug made by Watson Pharmaceuticals and Columbia Labs reduced the risk of premature birth, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial.

The two companies announced results Monday of a phase-3 trial of Prochieve (progesterone), a vaginal gel, saying that it produced a significant reduction in the number of preterm births. The trial was conducted under a collaboration with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.

JERUSALEM — Oramed Pharmaceuticals, a developer of oral drug delivery solutions, has published an article in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology’s November issue describing evaluation of the company’s glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) analog formulation (ORMD-0901) in regulating glucose excursions in animal models.

NEW YORK and SAN DIEGO — A leading charitable funder of and advocate for Type 1 diabetes research and a drug maker have entered into a research collaboration agreement to provide financial support for a clinical proof-of-concept study to investigate the effects of an analog of the human hormone leptin in patients with Type 1 diabetes.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. Wegmans on Monday announced the availability of its co-branded blood-glucose monitoring systems: Nipro Diagnostics’ TrueResult system and True2go.

SILVER SPRING, Md. Patients taking a certain class of drugs mostly used for prostate cancer may be at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, the Food and Drug Administration warned on Wednesday.

ST. PAUL, Minn. UltiMed, a company that makes insulin-delivery devices, has named a new executive.

The company announced the appointment of Brahim Zabeli as VP diabetes care for the U.S. market. In the new role, Zabeli will manage commercial activity, including sales, marketing and customer service.

Zabeli previously worked as director of trade and managed markets for medical supply company Becton, Dickinson & Co.