A SERVICE
OF 
Transplant
Briefs
December 15, 1997 · by TNN Medical Reporter Virginia
Baskerville
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The following news items were reported recently:
- The US Food and Drug Administration has granted manufacturing and marketing
clearance to ursodiol, a drug marketed as Urso for the treatment of primary
biliary cirrhosis. Liver transplant is the only current treatment for patients
with end-stage PBC. Urso will be marketed in the United States by Axcan
Schwarz, LLC, a joint venture of Axcan Pharma Inc. and Schwarz Pharma US.
- Sertoli Technologies of Tucson, Ariz., and the Carolinas Medical Center in
Charlotte, N.C., are collaborating in the development of a proprietary
transplant therapy for type I diabetes that is designed to replenish pancreatic
islets. Sertoli completed initial development of the therapy this summer, and
the next stage will be conducted at the Carolinas Medical Center.
- University of Michigan scientists have identified two components of
grapefruit juice that improve the body's absorption of some drugs, including
drugs prescribed for rejecting transplanted organs, for high blood pressure,
heart disease, allergies, and AIDS. The substances, furanocoumarins, attach to
an enzyme in the wall of the small intestine and thus prevent the small
intestine from "breaking down a number of drugs that are absorbed through
the intestinal lining," Reuters reported.
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