Ecallantide, also known as DX-88 got narrow approval from Food and Drug Administration advisory panel. In the panel, six persons voted in favor of approval while 5 voted against approval. This new drug by Dyax Corp is meant for patients with hereditary angioedema (HAE), an inherited protein deficiency that causes episodes of painful swelling of the skin, intestine, mouth and sometimes the throat. The new drug is designed to suppress an enzyme called kallikrein that plays a role in the swelling.

The FDA generally follows panel recommendations. FDA will give its final decision by March 23.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has issued warning for the people who received food kits as part of a disaster relief effort in Kentucky and Arkansas. Authorities asked them to inspect the kits in their possession and immediately dispose of packets of peanut butter contaminated with salmonella linked to a nationwide outbreak. Officials believe that 6,000 to 7,000 people remained in shelters, primarily in western Kentucky.

FEMA said though the kits do not all contain the same main course; they do contain packets of peanut butter.

Recent study revealed that combination of metabolic syndrome and high rates of tobacco smoking alleviate the risk of heart disease and stroke among older individuals in China. Metabolic syndrome is a combined term for diabetes and heart disease -- including abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and high triglycerides (another type of blood fat).

The recent partnership between Google Inc. and International Business Machines Corp will revolutionize the healthcare system by feeding personal information directly from users' bodies to their PCs.

Google and IBM unveiled a new initiative that will allow Google Health, a site where users can store and track information about their medical history, to connect to and stream data from medical devices. IBM says that connecting these devices to the Web will offer a new immediacy and granularity of health monitoring.

Recent study led to development of a new vaccine which is capable of fighting many types of influenza. This study was done by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Hokkaido University, Saitama Medical University and chemical maker NOF Corp.

Present vaccines target proteins that look like barbs covering the outer surface of the virus. But the problem is that these proteins can quickly change their shape and moreover several strains of influenza have differently shaped proteins. Hence new vaccines need to be developed every year.

The GPS device-maker Garmin and the PC components-maker Asus have teamed up to manufacture co-branded smartphones; and they intend bringing the so-manufactured devices at "attractive" prices to the US market!